How To Cope With Coronavirus When Your Job Isn’t “Essential”

Unemployment rates - under 4% just a few months ago - are now approaching 15%, as a significant portion of businesses have had to shut their doors in response to “shelter in place” orders. If you’re an hourly worker who has been affected by coronavirus layoffs, we know this isn’t an easy time. Even while the government is adding additional unemployment benefits, there is uncertainty all around us.

During this time, we’ve continued hiring at Bluecrew. Every day, our recruiting team is holding online interviews with active job seekers who are looking for full-time and part-time work. 

A story that we’re hearing over and over again is that of hospitality employees - cooks, waiters, bartenders, and more - who have been laid off or furloughed due to coronavirus. They talk about how much they love their careers, love interacting with people, have passions for hospitality, and have fine-tuned their ability to make even the grumpiest customers happy. 

We love their passion. At Bluecrew, we typically help workers like these find jobs they love in hospitality. And we’re excited to be able to do that again soon (we’ll be ramping up quickly when all of this is over!). Right now, though, most of our open positions are essential jobs with the companies that are keeping our economy and households running.

If you’re one of these people, we’d like to have you on our crew. In the future, we’ll be thrilled to connect you with hospitality and customer-facing jobs that fit your careers. But if you’re looking for a full-time or part-time job now, we can help with that, too. Keep reading for a few tips to help you find a temp position in the meantime.

What are essential jobs?

There aren’t too many hard and fast rules about what qualifies an essential business. While some seem standard, like doctor’s offices, pharmacies, and gas stations, others vary from state to state.

What we’ve noticed at Bluecrew is that companies that are continuing to hire are stores offering critical goods, like grocery stores (some, like Kroger and Jewel Osco are hiring in bulk to keep up with demand) and businesses that deliver goods straight to your door (warehouses jobs and delivery positions are both hot right now!).

Many of the jobs that we’re hiring for during the coronavirus pandemic are warehouse jobs like Picker/Packer, Warehouse Associate, and Material Handler. Clients of ours that are providing food and household goods are working quickly to keep up orders and ensure that their staff are able to work safely with social distancing rules in place. 

In addition, social distancing has made a lot more people order what they need (and would usually pick up themselves) by delivery. Stores and restaurants that don’t typically specialize in delivery are moving to focus on delivery as a core part of their businesses, and tapping into temp workers and gig workers to get the job done.

What makes you a great fit

So you don’t have warehouse or delivery experience… that doesn’t mean you couldn’t thrive in one of these essential jobs! People are adapting in the face of coronavirus and many - like Greg, a Bluecrew cook in L.A. who’s recently found himself in warehouse work - are thriving. 

When you’re looking to enter a new industry, just think of your skills first. If you typically work as a waiter or bartender, you’re probably great at remembering orders and ensuring that the right food and drinks get from the kitchen or bar to the customer. If you’re a cook, you probably thrive on keeping processes running smoothly and sticking to a tight schedule. There are certain skills you practice every day in your regular job that can help you succeed in other hourly jobs as well. 

If you’re preparing for an interview, take stock of your strengths and how they can help you in the job you’re interviewing for. Regardless of your past experience, we find that most companies are really searching for employees who are reliable, trustworthy, and have a positive attitude. If you can bring all of these qualities to your work, you’ll be a great fit from the start.

How to find a job online

Hiring just isn’t happening in the way it used to. Where you used to go for in-person interviews or to drop off an application, both companies and workers are now looking to do everything online.

With many companies, you can apply directly from their website. You just need to have a resume ready and be prepared to answer questions on the application about what makes you a great candidate. This is a great option if there is one place where you know you want to work. The downside is that you have to do this separately for every opportunity.

A quicker, easier way to apply is through an app like Bluecrew. We work with a wide variety of companies, so you can apply once and have access to lots of different employers. To join our crew, you just have to create an account and sign up for one of our remote interviews.

Once you’re approved, you have access to jobs on the Bluecrew app, and while right now most positions are essential jobs, when our cities return to normal, we’ll ramp up the number of hospitality jobs for cooks, bartenders, catering staff, cashiers, and more available on the app.

Find your next job online with the Bluecrew app. Get started today! 

‍