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Coronavirus Impact: Career Expert Takes A Look At Who's Hiring Right Now

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Here at CBS 4, we know many of you have lost your jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic.

We want to help.

In today's installment of "Now Hiring", CBS 4 Anchor Lauren Pastrana speaks with Ivette Duarte, the Director of Career and Talent Development at Florida International University about how you can stay on top of your game even when you're out of work to prepare for the future.

Pastrana: "How can people be using the time that they're at home right now to make themselves more marketable? Maybe an online class, signing up for continuing education or contacting an office like yours to advance themselves in some way. What would you suggest?"

Duarte: "All of the above. LinkedIn Learning is an amazing platform and we encourage students to get on there and we're actually on there ourselves. YouTube has videos put out by career centers all over the country. Directors are constantly sharing their resources. We've developed our own in career and talent development. So the ongoing learning process is huge. Professional development is huge. But also, if you know that you might be going into an industry that requires certain certifications and you don't have it yet or you haven't had time because you're running around or in school or working or managing both, to get those certifications to do the research to be ready once we hit the ground again to be 'Okay, now I have the polished resume. I've done the mock interview, Skype interview. You know, practice with friends.' It's a great time to get those skills down. The learning curve coming out of this is going to be huge. Some employers are telling us we're on hold for now. Some are saying when this is all over I'm going to have to make up for lost time. So we don't know what it's going to look like on the other end."

Pastrana: "So potentially some industries might have an overabundance of work and need even more people than they had before, correct?"

Duarte: "Right. Which is what you're seeing now. People hiring now are the Publix, the Winn Dixies, Walmart, Amazon because that's really the crux of what we're seeing right now. But in 6 months, a lot of people who were in the hospitality industry and were let go and now there's a resurgence of the tourism industry and so forth. You know, I always look at it short term and long term. Short term you need to be doing what you need to be doing to put food on the table and that includes applying for unemployment benefits if that's the case. But then long-term, in 5 months in 6 months, whenever we see the tail end of this, it could be 5 weeks that you are in the best position you can be able to launch your career."

Duarte says the key is to be flexible and creative.

She encourages job seekers to check out CareerSourceFlorida.com for tips and resources.

Click here to read Part I of this series.

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