Three Career Tips To Ride Out This COVID-19 Storm
Remember how back in early February we thought that things could not get any worse than the wildfires that devastated Australia, and the Amazon rainforest?
We were certainly wrong.
COVID-19 took us all by surprise, as it became a global pandemic within months. Like many people, youths like us are also affected. For some of us university students who were planning to go on exchange and learn what it is like living in another country, we were forced to cancel our plans. At the same time, those who were planning to find a part-time job or internship suddenly found themselves unable to find any, or even had offers rescinded as companies gradually scaled down their operations due to the pandemic.
With our plans thrown out of the window and a whole load of free time, we started to become anxious over what is ahead and think about what we can do to stay competitive. Recently, I attended a career conversation webinar organised by Halogen Foundation and LinkedIn, together with partner coaches from DBS Bank, American Express, Credit Suisse, Expedia Group, S&P Global, LVMH and Microsoft. The aim of the session was to learn more about the mindsets, character and skills that are needed to succeed in a volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. Here are my three main takeaways:
1. Learning Never Ends
In today’s VUCA world, the shelf life of skill sets is becoming shorter; it is estimated that the skills we learn now are only useful for the next two to three years, and they might not be relevant in the future. Therefore, it is important to continuously learn and stay relevant. To do that, we must remain curious, and have a strong desire to learn. Find opportunities to access resources that you can learn from, whether it’s through asking people questions, or taking up online learning courses. Linkedin Learning, Coursera, and edX are examples of massive open online courses where you can easily sign up as a member and start enrolling for classes.
2. Grow Your Network
Hard and soft skills are important, but so are our connections! Companies are increasingly becoming social, so looking for employment is no longer about cold calling or sending out resumes. Instead, it’s about connections and recommendations. It is expected that one is nine times more likely to get a job if someone from the company recommends you to the position as compared to a cold hire. To improve your connections, be active in networks! Make full use of Linkedin — follow the companies that you are interested in, join your school’s alumni groups, and more importantly, bounce ideas with like-minded individuals and keep discussions active.
3. Count Your Blessings
The coronavirus situation is a good time for us to think about our aspirations and come up with a game plan to prepare ourselves for the working world. We should make use of this time to change our mindset and grow our skill set. At the same time, we must not forget those who are in need of our help and guidance. We are privileged to receive guidance, and as thoughtful leaders, we ought to share and mentor those who are underserved.
As we hope for the pandemic to ease in time to come, we must also remember that life does not go back to normal immediately, and the VUCA conditions will intensify even more. We must not forget the importance of lifelong learning and growing our networks so that we can remain adaptable and help those in need during these changing times. Take these few months of extended break as a learning process; by working together and re-orienting ourselves we can re-emerge as stronger, more prepared individuals.
