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Coach Caroleen
I help women in tech land jobs they love with personalized career coaching.
This week, I ask you to pause and consider gratitude about your personal work situation. Was your job impacted by COVID? If not, do you know someone that was?
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us in many different ways. If you’ve been fortunate enough to have a job that was not impacted negatively by COVID, congratulations! Many others were not as lucky. Countless service industry jobs evaporated overnight. Jobs aligned to certain industries like travel and tourism also slowly disappeared with times.
This year has taught us that there is no such thing as a stable job. With no doing of your own, your job can disappear in a flash.
Take a pause for reflection
I’m thinking a lot about reflection because about this time last year, I was invited to speak at the Pink Mentor Network (PMN) Mentor/Member Celebration. I spent weeks preparing for my speech. I wrote it, rewrote it, practiced it out loud about 20 times until it came in exactly right under the 5-minute limit.
Like how I advocate practicing for interviews out loud, I practice for any presentation the same way. Each year, Stacy Cassio, the PMN Founder, asks us to choose one word and quote to represent out year. My word for 2019 was REFLECTION and my quote was:
Change is the only constant.
Of course, with 2020 almost behind us, my quote feels ridiculously on point. This year has been nothing but a constant stream of change with a global pandemic and mandatory quarantine. Jobs were lost overnight and many other jobs would disappear in the following months.
If you want to read my speech, check it out on LinkedIn and follow my Coach Caroleen page while you’re there!
Reflect on how you can improve your job search
It has become increasingly important to learn how to transition jobs and careers in our volatile job market. I remind my clients that job searching is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved.
The job market has gotten increasingly competitive and the traditional job hunting methods are no longer effective. Who puts on a suit and walks door-to-door in a business park handing out resumes anymore? Especially with COVID, people are turning to the internet and virtual ways to connect. In the same way, companies are using the ATS to quickly wade through the hundreds of applications that come pouring in.
When I started my first career transition, I had never heard of the ATS. Now I look back and wonder how I didn’t understand what was happening with computers scanning resume. Doh! This is the message that I strive to share with you in 3 Day Resume. I just received this message from one of my students:
Summary
This week, I’m asking you to spend a few minutes reflecting on your own job situation during our 2020 year of COVID global pandemic and quarantine. Have you been fortunate enough to keep your job or even find a better one? If you’re actively job searching, what have you done to improve your job searching skills?
Cultivate your growth mindset. You absolutely can learn and improve and that includes your ability to find new and better work. Hone those job searching skills!