The impact of COVID-19 on our health, jobs and national/global economy is dominating news headlines, yet, there is another important story to tell - its impact on people's long-term careers.
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COVID-19 is, in the parlance of careers researchers and counsellors, a 'career shock': a major unexpected and unplanned event impacting directly on short- and long-term career opportunities and experiences.
What can you do? Do you wait, stoically accepting COVID-19 career shocks as they are and hoping that something will 'turn up'? Perhaps not.
Career shocks come in many forms, positive or negative. An unexpected promotion or a professional award are positive career shocks, changing our career course for the better, while a serious accident or illness and unexpected redundancy are negative career shocks, changing our career trajectories often for the worse.
COVID-19 is practically 'off the [Richter] scale' with potential long-term damage and further tremors.
Your career may have already been impacted through immediate or imminent job loss. Now your task is to find or create alternative employment so your career can continue, albeit in an unexpected direction.
You may have kept your job but your career is still directly impacted as opportunities for promotion, pay increases and professional development disappear.
You might be working for the same employer but in a completely different way. Absolut Vodka and Jameson Irish Whiskey have changed their employees' career trajectories by drawing on and adding to current skills sets to produce hand sanitiser. Likewise, GM employees will make ventilators.
Universities, colleges and schools, ever on the brink of making courses available online, have done so in a matter of weeks or days, supported in large part by the willingness of lecturers and teachers to upgrade their technology skills and augment their own future career opportunities.
One way to navigate the challenges of COVID-19 is to identify the transferability of your current skill set. How can it be used in other contexts? Customer service skills are in big demand. What practical skills do you have? Could they be used in a different employment sector? How can you build on your skills to make them more transferable for the short term? A plethora of online training (often free) is at our finger tips, a perfect opportunity to upgrade and expand.
Voluntary work is also another proven avenue to future employment.
Professor Julia Richardson, School of Management at Curtin University
