Picture yourself videoconferencing into a job interview months from now. Stay-at-home orders are lifting, and businesses are opening back up. The conversation seems promising until the hiring manager asks, “Tell me about how you spent your time during the coronavirus shutdown.”
It’s a fair question. Never before (and hopefully never again) have millions of people been confined to their homes for so long, with ample time for self-reflection.
Whether you’re one of the 30 million unemployed Americans or are reevaluating the job you still have, you are uniquely poised for change and growth right now. People are taking a step back, rethinking their priorities and asking if there’s a better work-life model. After all, this is the disruption of a lifetime — a natural breaking point to get out of your own comfort zone. Opportunities abound if you take some simple but powerful steps.
Define and refine your passion.
If you’ve lost your job during the pandemic, being told to “follow your dreams” might sound like cheap armchair psychology right now. But Wharton School professor Adam Grant offers this encouragement: About half of people will emerge from this pandemic with post-traumatic growth. It’s the flip side of stress, and a reminder that sometimes it takes a shock to the system to revive the heart and restore life.
So put down the remote, and dig into some self-reflection. What comes naturally to you and doesn’t feel like work? What activities leave you feeling energized rather than drained? What do you miss most (or not miss at all) about your latest job? Identify what you love to do, and brainstorm ways to craft a career that can feed your bank account and your soul.
Explore new ways of learning.
If the distance between your day job and your dream job seems too far to bridge, remember that learning has changed dramatically in the past decade. Social platforms are currently flooded with ads for digital options to upskill, reskill or recharge your career. Community colleges are an excellent (and often overlooked) resource for expanding your current skill set. Free online courses let you explore a wide variety of niches from home on your own time — which is especially relevant in today’s climate. Invitations to join webinars and professional groups abound on LinkedIn and may be sitting in your inbox right now. Vocational programs are making a comeback thanks to serious shortages in specialties like welding and electrical work. Innovative programs like our firm’s partnership with Kenzie Academy combine retraining with paid apprenticeships in in-demand technical fields. Free online courses from Udemy, Coursera, Alison and others let you explore a wide variety of niches from home on your own time – which is especially relevant in today's climate.
And of course, if you’re employed and your company offers free skill development or financial support for external learning, take advantage of those options. It’s likely there are resources available to help you further explore your passion and obtain the skills needed to make it a reality.
Capitalize on new ways of working.
If you enjoy going to the same work location each day and spending eight to nine hours in a predictable shift, more power to you. But stay-at-home orders have shown millions of people there are options beyond the office walls. Team platforms, videoconferencing and collaboration tools offer productivity and a personal touch if you learn how to make the most of them throughout your workday. Jobs of the future will increasingly require working with diverse, distributed teams to co-create solutions and solve problems creatively in a cloud-based environment.
Regardless of what you’re pursuing, exploring these options and new ways of working can give you an edge and open doors to opportunities across town or around the globe that you didn’t even know existed, bringing that passion of yours even closer within reach.
We’re all feeling a bit uncertain about how the future will play out. But we each have the opportunity — and I believe, the responsibility — to live up to our full potential and do work that matters to us. As the poet Mary Oliver said, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” It’s a question that deserves a well-rounded answer, and there’s no better time than the present.
