Staff Corner

Getting Creative with Hiring
During Coronavirus Pandemic

Posted on June 1, 2021

Since the start of the pandemic last year, employment rates around the globe have declined. On the other side of the coin, resignation rates have also plummeted. Workers are now afraid to leave their jobs in fear of being unemployed in these trying times. However, some industries like Information technology have continued with their recruitment efforts. Infobuilder is fortunate enough to be included in this industry. In doing so, we met two applicants, recently becoming trusted employees, who are one of rare ones brave enough to resign from their old jobs and even change careers. In this article, we’re going to dive into these two atypical situations and see how they merge.


In retrospect, COVID-19 has sparked innovations in recruiting, hiring and onboarding. One of the most popular in the recent months is matching furloughed workers with open positions at companies. Infobuilder, a company in need of a lot of Business Analysts have found another way to adopt and fulfill our need during these times. Maria Elaine Aquino and Jennifer Clemente have both been hired in the middle of the pandemic. They are not the only ones that we welcome in our family. However, it is interesting to note that both of them are Engineering graduates who have years of experience in manufacturing.


To give a little background, Elaine was a Process Engineer for five years before she was hired as a Business Analyst last January. A graduate of Chemical Engineering, she is now a part of an ECM project for one of our clients. On the other hand, Jennifer or Jen, was a TPS (Tire Production System) Industrial Engineer for two years before she was hired last September 2020. A graduate of Industrial Engineering, she is now deployed as a Business Analyst for one of our clients.

When asked whether the pandemic pushed them to resign from their previous work and start a new career, Elaine says that it was a part of it. The working conditions of her former work changed and it was not ideal for her anymore. When this happened, she said that she started looking for other options. As for the bravery that was needed with their decision, Jen said that
she convinced herself to be strong and just really gathered every courage that she had.


For both of them, this transition came with a lot of adjustments—the actual work, working from home for the first time, going back to their respective home, etc. In dealing with all of these changes, Jen said that when the technical part of the actual work came it was hard. She really had to do a lot of research and learn a lot of new things. Both of them actually mentioned that the one thing that they had the most trouble with is keeping up with the jargons of the IT industry. However, both of them said in separate interviews that it didn’t become a burden that they couldn’t handle because their officemates, especially their teammates and supervisors really helped them in this regard.


“They were really accommodating and you can really tell that they were willing to help even if the communication is limited,” Jen describes her experience.


Elaine and Jen admitted that there wasn’t a lot of skills and experience from their previous work that they could use in their current positions. However, the soft skills that they had developed like discipline, accountability, good work ethic and responsibility and ownership really helped them with this change. From their statements and the way they describe their work
right now, Elaine and Jen are content and more than satisfied with where they are now. They are still enjoying the work from home setup and are both looking forward to the new experiences and skills that come with their new work.


The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc all around the world. Recruitment is no exception. It doesn’t matter which business you are in, it is likely that the pandemic has impacted your recruitment process in some way. Our plans of hiring and recruitment may have changed since all of this started. Like in a lot of ways, innovation and adopting to these changes really goes a long way when it comes to the survival of our business. One simple decision of recruiting engineers for a business analyst position led our company to two exceptional employees. Afterall, we at Infobuilder believe that technology can be learned, but analytical thinking and systematic approach to problem solving are skills that are precious to our project delivery process. Engineers are trained and inherently ingrained with these skills. These are the core skills that Elaine and Jen are bringing into our organization. This innovative approach greatly enhanced our recruitment operations and helped redirect our COVID-19 strategy in the right direction.

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