11/07/2020
During Covid19 times and beyond
Despite the Covid19 havoc caused worldwide, one can remain relevant in a number of ways. Already, over 26 million jobs have been lost with the carnage showing no signs of abating. Many industries will perish or suffer for many years to come. No job is an assurance anymore. Whether you are working in a large, renowned organisation, or in a lesser known but profitable business, it is extremely important to plan the moves ahead and make yourself calamity-proof.
I am enlisting a few concepts that will enable you stay in the race and ride the wave of this calamitous times.
1. Equip yourself with Indispensable Skills
It is Corona virus now, tomorrow some other virus may emerge and threaten our lives. Most importantly, jobs shall be difficult to find as the tendency will be to cut costs and bank on the few most important employees essential for the business to survive. Also, the constant fear of you being the next to face the axe will undoubtedly create a tension that will affect performance at workplace. Start immediately and equip yourself with skills that may or may not arm you in the current job but will hold you steady on a growth path in the years to come. In the rat race to remain relevant, one forgot to slow down and take deep breaths, delve within, and look to upskill in areas that might have seemed out of boundaries in the job environment. Take steps and make an effort to come out of your comfort zone. Push yourself hard and be aggressive on yourself. Find solace and inspiration from buddies or spouse that fuels your determination to spur towards a change. Change yourself within.
If you have lost your job, do not wallow in self-pity. It is time that every ounce of energy within you is aroused to look out for opportunities. Call and connect with friends, acquaintances, family, past associates, vendors within your domain, friends of friends, as many of them as possible. Relate with them and state your situation. Shed your ego and the reluctance to be discreet. Trust me, the person with whom you are talking to might be in a similar situation as yourselves or might offer help.
Take any role that comes on offer. Part time roles, contracting roles, even honorary if they are presented to you or asked of you. The most important thing is to keep your mind alive, active, busy, engaged. And believe you me, no experience shall go waste. What goes around, comes around for sure. In time. It is the law of the universe.
Call your ex employers intermittently, on regular intervals. They will be sensitive to your situation, and not ward you off. Use the opportunity of their empathy towards you to offer or provide low-cost part-time assistance off the record. This might show an eagerness, and a willingness to help, and build the element of trust that will be exceedingly difficult to shake off.
2. Amaze yourself in the process of reinvention
If you are in an industry or career that has been irrevocably bruised because of Covid19, take bold steps to do something that you would not have dared to do in a situation prior to Covid19. Like forming an association or group of all sorts who have faced a similar dilemma and take the lead in identifying opportunities of reengagement in a holistic and altruistic manner. Show leadership in the times of crisis. Sometimes a cold area becomes hot overnight. One needs to look hard, extremely hard for emerging opportunities. If one avenue gets closed, another will spring up. That is the universe’s rule. This may also be a time to go back to school to learn new skills for a type of career that you longed to be in, obtain accreditations and certifications or accepting a job at the bottom and starting all over again in a new field.
Pivoting is another way. Try to find a way that your skills, experience, and knowledge can effortlessly crossover into another field. You may have to take a couple of steps backward financially, but you can always start rebuilding and quickly grow your career again. Highly paid Lehmann Brothers staff took up compliance and audit roles and rose up in their careers because they knew the loopholes and tricks of trading.
3. Thoroughly analyse your spends and consider relocation
Complete a thorough audit of all your credit card, debit card and cash spends over the past year. You will realise areas of excesses that you can cut down. If you are paying huge rentals, you might want to consider relocating. This might not only be an opportunity to explore settling down into a smaller pond with less fish from a large pond with many sharks. On the other hand, if you are only fishing in a small pond, you are missing the entire ocean of fish. One aspect that you will certainly need to embrace is to be open-minded and ready to make adjustments in your life. One factor that buttresses this point is that remote jobs will prevail, at least in the short to medium term. A positive consequence of the coronavirus and its aftermath will be that companies have begun to recognize that people can effectively work from home. Companies, and that too prominent and phenomenally successful ones, realize that they can save a fortune on pricey, big city rent. HR professionals understand the benefits of having happy workers working from home than those who are required to trundle to work on crowded buses and trains that take an hour or more each way.
4. Start the Business you always wanted to get into
If you wanted to be an entrepreneur, there has never been a better time than now, since all entrepreneurs, even the established ones will literally be startups in some way or the other in the post Covid19 era. Start small online with an owner / proprietor / corporate designation and throw open the page saying that you are open for business. You can offer advice, guidance and mentoring to an array of businesses, that need help but do not have the financial wherewithal to hire. Either you can make a go at it and make some money, or it gets to be something smart to have on your platter.
To sum up, the keys to navigating the new post-COVID-19 world shall entail stretching yourself to work harder to enhance your value, prepare to reinvent yourself, pivot to another career, take on short-term assignments to stay relevant, have an open mind to moving where the jobs are and learn to work remotely. Lastly, you can always create your own universe by starting a business, offering your experience, skills, and knowledge. And making the world around you a better and happy place to live.
Stay safe and stay positive !! 🙏
Regards,
Ravi Jore
House of Hospitality
