Why on earth would I choose to share tips on how to effectively use this stay-at-home period to strategically enhance our marketability, during such a crisis? Exactly due to the fact that at this point, even the most skeptical people amongst us can no longer argue or deny the severity of this pandemic and its all encompassing negative effects in all areas of our life. One thing that experts from every field have continuously agreed upon, is that we will collectively continue to experience the impacts (emotional, economic…) of this deadly virus for months and years to come. According to this recent article in The Washington Post by Heather Long, more than 10 million of Americans have already applied for unemployment benefits; to me that is a staggering number, especially when we haven’t even reached the peak of this unprecedented crisis.
So, as I diligently follow the social distancing guidelines and staying home, I have been thinking of how everyone but particularly those most affected can start preparing to better regain and/or obtain new opportunities in the aftermath of this global crisis. I am going to share some time tested tips on how to effectively use this stay-at-home period to strategically enhance our marketability, from my many years of successful job/career development and transition consulting.
BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR DAILY ROUTINE. Though most of us must and should stay home to help protect ourselves and others, we still have a level of control on our daily routine. As someone who has worked from home for many reasons throughout the years, I can attest to the challenge of being focused and disciplined without a conscious effort. In addition, I know that it can be even more difficult for those with children; however, it is very doable with a few intentional and strategic practices. For instance, just creating and maintaining a schedule (nothing formal or too rigid) can help us keep focus and achieve essential tasks. Again, it’s not the end of the world, if we aren’t able to complete everything we scheduled for a particular day, just move it to the next one and keep trying our best.
DEVELOP YOUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS. We should all use this forced down-time to assess and identify areas for continued growth. No matter how good and successful that we have been in any particular job and/or career, there will always be something that can be improved for our overall professional development. Whatever the areas of improvement that we respectively identified, can only be done through training and practice. So my advice is for all of us to effectively use this time to acquire or improve one or more necessary skills. Instead of feeling stuck, let’s positively occupy our mind with some of the many available and free online courses, webinars, tutorials. I recently emailed a friend of mine to just remind her of how she can use this stay-at-home period to fulfill her long-time goal of improving her typing skill. I am a firm believer in always trying to find the silver lining in anything; as well as using every opportunity to self improve and successfully prepare for the inevitable transitions that come in life.
CREATE AND CULTIVATE YOUR BRAND. I will not go into details here on how to building a brand (maybe in a later article). Today, I mainly want to remind us all of the importance and value of our brand. Whether professional and/or personal, our brand can help leaders, recruiters and the world at large know who we are and what we stand for in this global competitive market. We’ve all experience it on both a conscious and unconscious level; whenever given a choice, we mostly select based on what characteristics that we associate to any particular brand, i.e.: quality, affordability etc. My years in Career Image consulting have thought me that the issue isn’t learning “how to” but rather that most individuals think that only a business needs to or can be a brand. Whether we are aware of it or not, we all present an image to the world, and it’s our duty to ensure that it’s the correct and best fitting image. Check out my previous article for tips to “Start Redefining Your Image”. Greatness is truly in the details.
This unprecedented crisis is really hard on everyone throughout the world. We are all rightfully feeling uncertain, worried and scared. However, we can still try our best to use this unfortunate time, to improve identified areas of weakness, establish our brand and proactively enhance our marketability.
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