Why The Pandemic Is the Time to Reinvent Your Career

People tend to have a new perspective of life when they experience and live through unexpected events. This is when they get out of their comfort zone and start to ask important questions about their life. It’s no surprise, then, that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to re-examine their career choices.

Since the pandemic has created financial hardships and social strain, now might not seem like the right time to reinvent your career. Nevertheless, you stand to reap many benefits if you decide to work on your career during the pandemic. After all, despite some of the negativities the pandemic has created around job security or work, it has similarly provided us with a lot of opportunities, around work-life balance, getting to manage our time more efficiently, and opening up the doors to exploring new possibilities within our careers.

Take Advantage of the Upsurge in Remote Working

When the pandemic struck, many companies asked their employees to work from home. Although this was supposed to be a short-term measure, some organisations have decided to create a permanent remote-working environment. One reason is that collaborative tools had already been purchased and distributed to employees. Also, many companies found remote teams to be more productive than onsite teams. As a result, about 80% of businesses that allow remote work expect this trend to continue in the long term.

If you want to continue working remotely but your current company dictates that you must go back to your workplace, you may consider a new profession.

Get a More Fulfilling Life

After the lockdown rules were implemented, most people started to spend more time alone. While being in isolation can have humdrum moments, it does provide the opportunity to conduct analysis of your life’s progress. You may come to the conclusion that you are not leading a happy life because you don’t enjoy your work.

You will probably have a more fulfilling life if you chose a different career. Consequently, you should make a list of your happiest moments from the last ten years. Then, you can look for a career that can put you in similarly exciting situations.

Have a More Flexible Life

Employees have discovered that they have more flexibility and greater control over their life when they work remotely. The increased autonomy means that you can complete tasks at your own pace.

In addition, you can have more free time to do activities like attend classes or go to webinars. For example, you can hold virtual meetings with clients and attend online classes without leaving the comfort of your home.

Have More Defined Priorities

People have lost loved ones, social connections, and jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time of great adversity, many have discovered their true priorities and values.

You may have realised that you have been chasing the wrong things for a long time. Perhaps your priority is not to have a fat salary but to make a positive impact in other people’s lives. But before you can start changing the world, you may have to take a new career path.

Create New Career Networks and Connections

Uploading your resume to a job board with thousands of similar resumes will likely not land you a new job. Your best move can be to form personal and professional relationships with leading players in your industry. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has slashed the workload of these professionals, they will be willing to take your phone calls and respond to your messages.

Now is the time to reach out to old friends, classmates, colleagues, and bosses. These people can give you new insights and referrals that you can use to reinvent your career. Connecting with friends of friends might also be the best way to learn about new opportunities and get a new job.

Why Now to Reinvent Your Career?

• You have time to explore: As most of us may have the flexibility to work from home, whether thats only 1 day a week to being fully based on working from home 5 days a week, we all have this extra added time. The factor of eradicating all the excess time travelling to-and-from work or facing the issues of being on reduced hours, we now find ourselves with more capacity to invest that energy into other places. Utilising this time to revamp your CV or Resume, spend this time in searching for new jobs or job-hunting can be essential in finding your next opportunity, granted all the time we have to explore the job-space.
• You have time to learn: Aside from seeking new pastures through job-hunting or getting an idea of the types of jobs available on the market, we can even delegate this time into the betterment of ourselves. Using this time to learn a new skill or develop a new hobby is a great way to make the most of the opportunity at hand. We have all thought about the possibility of picking up a new book, enrolling yourself into an online class which you have always wanted to learn about or even something just as simple as setting aside time to prioritise your health and exercise.

• Possibility of new business ventures: Following on from the last point, even learning these new skills and hobbies, or simply the enhancement or sharpening of these skills could in essence formulate an opportunity around a potential new career path. A lot of people have used the pandemic to take their small skill or hobby and turn it into a small business, so why not you? There may be something you are good at – painting or sketching, maybe you have a passion for cooking, or maybe you have a lot of information and expertise in particular field which you could provide as a service. These are all great avenues which could transofrm your career.

Final Thoughts

The coronavirus pandemic has destroyed lives and livelihoods, but it has given us the chance to work on our careers. As the pandemic is being brought under control, it is time to come out of the lockdown with a fresh career start.

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