No matter where in the world you may be, you’re likely been impacted by COVID-19 in some way. Most industries are under severe pressure with wide scale downsizing, mass retrenchments, and reduced hours changing the very way that we do business. For most people, this means tighter budgets and severely constrained income. During this time of the pandemic, it is essential to stay positive and begin innovating. Change is inevitable at this point in time, but it all comes down to your own initiative, and how you manage the facets making up your own personal crisis. Here’s what to do if your job is affected by COVID-19, giving key advice and steps to securing a prosperous future despite any current setbacks.
Assess Grants & Unemployment Benefits
During this global pandemic, every country is doing its best to put measures in place to protect the economy and keep national funds turning over. State welfare programs are available across the world, covering every denomination, including the semi-permanently unemployed. This is a time when every person needs to make their money work for them. Gone are the days of relying on ample opportunities – now they must be created. Don’t forsake any compensation offered by a union, employer, or state institution. There will always be obligations that each employer or country needs to uphold. Find your rights and claim what is due.
Know Your Rights
No matter where you are in the world, there will be legislation, compensation, and support initiatives made ready to help you manage during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’re renting and out of a job, establish a payment plan under the conditions and regulations stipulated by your country and lease agreement. Home-owners should look for payment relief systems such as payment “holidays.” The same goes for any accounts that you need to pay. You’ll be able to find relief for any and all bills during this period. Use the support available to you. Claim unemployment and clarify the law surrounding your personal circumstances.
Plan Your Finances
From this foundation, devise a budget and strategy. Speculation regarding the future is near impossible, so make the most of your abilities and affinities. Determine whether you’ll need to invest any of your working finances into capital for online ventures, or other business opportunities. Even if you’re going to be hunting down a desk-job or other formal, conventional employment, money will be needed for everything from phone calls to the initial marketing of yourself. Don’t leave yourself in a position where you’re stuck thanks to lacking the little money it takes to be properly prepared and ready for an (even-online) interview on time, or unable to fulfill an order.
Analyze Your Skillset
Regardless of which industry you work in or what job you do exactly, every person will amass a unique skill set that far outreaches the basics set out in the job description. Take a good, hard look at yourself and evaluate your practical skills. Just because there isn’t an opening in your current field at the present moment, this doesn’t mean that your abilities can’t be harnessed in other ways. Any ability or affinity that you had at work will inadvertently have a range of connected applications that you can use it for, so consider these.
List Abilities & Affinities
Start by listing the skills critical to your position. Branch off into the things that you’re responsible for or currently doing that aren’t directly tied to your job. Supplementary tasks or functions are next. Make a list of everything that you have learned along the way, including the seemingly less significant details. If you answer the phone, cite it. If you design the email newsletter – this is an asset you can bank from, so put it on paper. One can always go a step further, and break things down into personal, call it emotional, skills, and practical, functional abilities. Your emotional leanings can go a long way toward clarifying what job or sector is best suited to you.
Discovering Potential
For example, those who work in a financial environment may find that they’re exceedingly efficient at preparing, formatting, and fixing calculation errors within spreadsheets. This, by itself, is an asset that is in massive demand within the gig economy. Outbound marketers may find themselves with loads of leads, but a total need for a completely new product now that global markets call for social distance and online ordering in place of face-to-face contact. Every sector of business, and every type of job, will come with practical abilities and services that can be rendered digitally, online.
Compare Job Opportunities
Once you’re done forming an overview of your capabilities and scope of work, try to match your affinities to specific jobs. Now, during this pressing time, unemployment rates have skyrocketed around the world. The gig economy and freelancing offer the opportunity to work online no matter where you are in the world, or what your specific economic circumstances may be. Some of us may be able to find a digital counterpart to our office job. Others will need to begin hunting down specific work or placing gigs for offer on popular job boards. Even if you plan to find yourself conventional employment, working online enables you to earn a supplemental income that remains relatively unaffected by international and local movements & markets.
Expand Your Online Presence & Improve Your Digital Identity
Every professional needs a digital identity that reflects their skills and career correctly. Profiles should not only be filled with accurate information, but make sure that they’re up to date and inclusive of all notable achievements, experience, and testimonies. At least one of your social networks should be in active use. A great example is LinkedIn. You don’t need to post every day, but make sure that you do from time to time in order to show your voice and presence.
Join Online Job Markets
Navigating online job markets is something that you will become more and more familiar with. Checking prospective hiring profiles, bolstering your own, tendering with a competitive cover, and stunning examples are all skills that you’ll get better and better at. Instead of spreading yourself thin, focus on one or two reputable markets, perhaps two with different ways of handling jobs and job posting. MyOpportunity.com is one of the most versatile online job markets, empowering job seekers, and those hiring with a powerful AI-driven engine that connects people. Using a site like this, allows you to advertise your “gigs” or services, or showcase your professional portfolio to eyes that matter. Another option is gig marketplace like Fiverr.com, where you can advertise specific services at fixed rates (there hasn’t been a $5 limit for years, pricing is flexible with no ceiling).
Adjust Routine That You’re Comfortable With
Consistency is the key to success. There is no standard that you need to conform to whilst you’re at home, hunting down opportunities online. Form a routine that gets you going, driven and focused, towards a balanced range of activities that keep you productive and on-point. Juggling the responsibilities of a home suddenly thrown at one by this global pandemic poses a challenge, but you need to decide on and create a framework for keeping your own financial, emotional, and physical machine moving. A little routine goes a long way, especially when you combine crucial steps like applying for a certain number of projects each day, or promoting your ads and profile. Work smart and work hard.
Learn A New Skill
If you find yourself with ample time on your hands but not enough work incoming to keep yourself busy all the time, then first consider what you can do to bolster your earning potential. There has never been a better opportunity to strengthen your personal portfolio by taking online courses. Don’t let monetary issues stop you from learning. There are tons of free online courses that can show you the things that you need to know to improve your productivity, efficacy, and broaden your abilities. Learning isn’t limited by courseware. If you can’t find something along the lines that you’re looking for, then look towards videos, books, and websites. You’ll always be able to find educational resources that can improve either your mindset, skillset, or position you at the best place to capitalize on latent opportunities.
Seize The Day, Everyday
The more proactive you are during this period, the better you’ll come out on the other side of COVID-19. Countless people have had their jobs affected, but with the decline of certain industries, and the shutting of doors comes wonderful new opportunities and grand scope for change. Assess your potential realistically, but never sell yourself short. Making your worth known online goes a long way towards establishing yourself as a sought-after professional. Never stop growing and stay on the lookout for exciting new avenues of business. Within time, we’ll get all get through it, and with a bit of hard work in between, we’ll thrive.