I have been quite busy coaching clients to navigate job searches and strategically grow their careers during COVID-19. Based on detailed insider information I have gathered, below is a list of companies who are still hiring at close to normal rate.
1) Amazon: Amazon’s e-commerce business is killing it at the moment. AWS is still doing fairly well. Amazon also has a regular practice of putting a certain percentage of employees on “Dev” or “PIP” list. So it doesn’t have a lot of fat. As a result, amazon is still hiring quite a bit.
However, here is a very important piece of advice: historically amazon tends to slow down hiring around July/August because amazon has its annual OP1 process (annual budget planning) around this time. Amazon’s recent earning announcement also showed it will face significant margin pressure in Q2. I would not be surprised if amazon ends up freezing hiring in July/August. If you are getting a call from an amazon recruiter to schedule interviews, I recommend you to schedule your interviews as soon as possible. Do NOT try to push the interview dates out because you feel you need several weeks’ preparation before you feel ready. It is not uncommon for Amazon recruiters to pause or cancel scheduled interviews. So you need to strike when the iron is hot. Push yourself hard to get ready as soon as possible because the job openings might be cancelled in the near future. If you need help to get ready or need some extra push to take you to the finish line, sign up for my 1-on-1 interview coaching. Just reply to this email to sign up.
2) Leading companies in the grocery e-commerce space: Instacart is doing very well. It turned a small profit in April. It is one of the biggest beneficiaries of COVID-19. Albertsons Grocery Store e-commerce is also hiring. Albertsons’ headquarter is in Boise, Idaho, but it has a significant operation in the Bay Area as Safeway (owned by Albertson) has headquarter in Pleasanton, CA, which is a relatively more “affordable” part of the bay area and you will have a reverse commute if you live in the South Bay. Walmart Grocery app was one of the top 3 app downloads during the height of COVID-19. Walmart e-commerce has offices in San Bruno (the original Walmart lab location), New Jersey (the jet.com location) as well as its corporate headquarter in Bentonville, Arkansas. Another company you should check out is Chewy.com. With Shelter-in-Place, Pet adoption is up significantly year over year. Chewy.com is growing nicely.
3) Companies in the food space are doing very well. Imperfectfoods.com is a late-stage startup coming from nowhere but is doing half a billion in sales a year. If I’m looking for a job, I’d be very interested in joining such a mission-driven, high growth company. Due to potential disruption to meat suppliers, plant-based meat companies such as Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) and Impossible Foods are in the right place at the right time. They have already been on a path of fast growth, and it’ll only accelerate.
4) The online meeting and collaboration space is booming. Microsoft, Google and Facebook are going after Zoom hard. Zoom has a lot of job openings. Verizon just acquired Blue Jeans, a competitor of Zoom. Other companies in this space such as GoToMeeting and Dialpad are also worth check out.
5) Although a nuclear winter might be coming to Venture Capital, a number of late stage startups still received large amounts of funding and/or have seen their valuation growing significantly during their current fund raising process. One of my favorite unicorn startups is AirTable which is raising a round and might see its valuation tripled. I use AirTable as a CRM for my coaching business so I can testify it’s a powerful app. Online marketplace OfferUp just received $120M in a new round of funding on March 16 (right in the middle of COVID-19 crisis!). Seattle based late-stage startup Convoy raised $400M last November so it is still hiring.
6) COVID-19 has fueled explosive growth in the tele-medicine space. Teledoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) is the only publicly traded pure-play in this space. Privately held players include Doctor On Demand, MDLIVE, 98point6, etc.
7) Online learning space is exploding. As we’re sheltered in place, many families are using Udemy, Coursera, IXL Learning, Khan Academy, and SeeSaw Class App to help our kids learn remotely.
8) Our digital media consumption and Internet bandwidth consumption are growing significantly. Streaming providers such as NetFlix and Hulu are doing very well. Online gaming companies such as Epic Game (the maker of Fortnite) are killing it. Old school telecommunication companies such as Charter Communication are experiencing unexpected growths as more people sign up for faster broadband connections at home.
Like I said in my previous email newsletter, the Chinese expression for “Crisis” consists of two characters — “Danger” and “Opportunity”. Warren Buffet famously said “be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful”. If you’re fearful of your job security or you’re laid off, instead of feeling depressed, take a step back, think strategically, have a consistent and specific action plan, keep yourself accountable, and go after it persistently. Your goal should be coming out of the crisis at the top. There is an opportunity behind every crisis.
Announcing 30-Day COVID-19 Job Search Workshop: In addition to my 1 on 1 interview coaching ($749 – $2,499), to help as many people as I can during the current challenging time, I am adding a new group coaching program for a limited time.
We will have a weekly call for 4 weeks and unrestricted email support. This is not a regular offering of mine, it’s intended to help you not just weather the storm but to find sunny skies, and to be part of your support system. This is a highly structured program that will keep you accountable for your job search. Our weekly workshop will give you specific guidance on resume/cover letter, define target list, professional networking, and interview preparation. Job Search can be lonely and stressful. Your workshop cohort and I will serve as you support network to overcome the challenges, turn the crisis into opportunity, and succeed.
I have a few slots left (I keep each workshop to a small group), write me at andrew@nailyourjobinterview.com to sign up: $500 (4 1-hour weekly workshop session over Zoom, unlimited email support, job search accountability journal, private Slack channel, and more)