Victoria Okotie ⋅ Houston, TX BP ⋅ 15 years experience

Stephen, it is still too early to tell..however, as a result of the lockdown in BP, there has been a hiring freeze internally and externally. Based on feedback from friends or colleagues in the job market, there has also been significant decline in open positions or roles that were advertised which have are now being placed on hold. That being said, I would recommend any prospective employee to first re-evaluate if the roles he/she is looking at are future-proof. With the impending recession and impact of the lockdown, many roles many never come back. This may be the time to re-skill and up-skill based on predicted trends. The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. Check out LinkedIn 2020 Emerging Job Report. This can guide your networking strategy. https://blog.linkedin.com/2019/december/10/the-jobs-of-tomorrow-linkedins-2020-emerging-jobs-report

Jason Aepli ⋅ Walnut Creek, CA Northrop Grumman ⋅ 8 years experience

Stephen,

The defense industry is hiring like crazy even during the covid-19 pandemic. At Northrop Grumman we are looking to hire somewhere around 10,000 new employees over the next year so obviously we can't sit by and wait for the pandemic to clear up. Instead, we're moving to entirely remote interviewing, i.e. phone and VTC. On boarding has been a bit of challenge I believe, but most everyone in the company that CAN telework right now is REQUIRED to telework until things start to clear up. I know things are no different at Lockheed Martin. When you look at other companies like Boeing that have large revenue streams coming from the commercial world they are not hiring nearly as much, but their defense businesses are still trying to fill vacancies as quickly as they can.

Best,
Jason Aepli

Robin Hicks ⋅ Naperville, IL BP ⋅ 41 years experience

Hi Stephen. Thanks for your service.

I'd add to Victoria's reply that you think about the areas you have most interest in; whether job or volunteer related, and determine whether or not supporting organizations or firms are doing any virtual learning or networking as many have shifted to that right now.

For example many Chambers of Commerce are hosting sessions that offer advice to business owners. While I work for a corporation, because of our supplier diversity ambitions I've dialed in to several Chamber webinars. As a result I've been reached out to by a couple of firms and am working to get them answers to specific questions.

Lastly many non-profits have corporate types on their boards or as active members so you never know, your next great networking can result from the good things you're doing to help others.

Amit Chaudhary ⋅ San Jose, CA Doordash, Silicon Valley Software Company ⋅ 20 years experience

The company I work for is still doing fine. The transition to online recruitment has slowed, but not stopped hiring