Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 57 - How to Prepare for a New Job After the Pandemic Has Passed

April 29, 2020 Kitty Boitnott Season 1 Episode 57
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 57 - How to Prepare for a New Job After the Pandemic Has Passed
Show Notes Transcript

As the weeks drag on, even though the curve may be flattening, the economic hardship that people have been feeling will continue into the coming weeks and months. Let's be honest. Some jobs are going to disappear for good. And depending on what happens with Congress and its sense of responsibility--or lack thereof--for states and localities, even more jobs may be on the chopping block. The states and localities, after all, are bearing the brunt of the shutdowns and all the social isolation. Restaurants that are closed can't pay business taxes to the state or the locality. The same goes for salons and spas and other personal service industries.

If localities have to constrict, they will be forced to lay off teachers and firefighters and police officers and other local government workers.

I remember only too well what happened in 2008-2009 when we went through a similar economic constriction.

So, what will you do if your job disappears? Are you ready? Do you know what you want to do and are you prepared to make the case for why you would be a strong candidate if you needed to apply for a new job tomorrow?

In this episode, Career Transition and Job Search Coach, Kitty Boitnott, offers suggestions on how to prepare just in case you don't want to go back to your old job or your old job isn't available when this is over.

#careertransition #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #pandemic #COVID-19 #coronavirus

Would you like to talk with Kitty about your specific situation to learn how she might help you get started on a job search or get a search that fell off the rails because of COVID get back on track? Then book a session with her by clicking here:  https://kittyboitnott.lpages.co/book-a-session-here/

Kitty Boitnott:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." Hi, this is Kitty Boitnott of"Teachers in Transition" and Boitnott Coaching, and welcome back to Episode 57 of Teachers in Transition, the podcast and the YouTube channel. Now if you've listened to me before, you'll already know that I alternate topics between stress management strategies one week and career transition techniques. The next, because I am both a stress management coach and have offered information about stress management strategies and workshops and an ebook and on this podcast and I also offer career transition advice because I am a trained and experienced career transition and job search coach. I refer to myself as a heart-centered career transition and job search coach and I talk each week about one of those topics and I alternate. So this week the topic is career transition and of course I've been talking for the last few weeks about what do you do when you're wanting to make a career change in the midst of a international pandemic. And the best advice I can give is to adjust your expectations and to be patient, but I also recommend that you not put your job search on hold and in the last few weeks I've been offering a webinar workshop on do you even want to go to your old job when things get back to normal? Because the fact of the matter is, I think during this particular episode in our history, our personal and collective history, we are reflecting on what's really important in our lives, right? We've had to slow way down. We're not on the go all the time. We don't have the excuse of being too busy to do this or that and the other and or to think about this and that and the other. One of the things that I think we are all being tasked, whether we like it or not, with thinking about is what is important in our lives. We've had to reframe what we think of as essential workers in the last few weeks. All right. Who are the essential folks? It's not the CEOs, it's the people on the front line, the nurses, the nurses assistants. The doctors, the first responders, the grocery store clerks, the people who stock the groceries at night, the people who work in the drug stores, the pharmacists, all of those folks are the essential people, the people who are delivering your Amazon orders or your, your latest, whatever it is that the grub hub delivery people or the door dash people, those are the folks that we've come to consider essential workers. Right. And our teachers, our teachers have been asked to step up in a way that they never anticipated. Nobody anticipated schools had been closed here in Virginia since early March and will remain closed all the way through the end of this year. I suspect it's questionable and that people in high places are seriously wondering whether they can safely reopen the schools in September. Given that we've been told there may be a second wave of this virus or Dan in the fall and we certainly don't want to put our children at risk and we don't want to put the people that they live with at risk. And many of our children live in extended families with older adults who may have underlying health issues. And we just, we're not in a position to want to start this whole business all over again. So I don't know what will end up happening. Do you know people are being asked to step up in a way that they hadn't considered that they might have to. And I also think it's causing us to think in, in terms of what is it that is truly important. So the question I have for you is when things get back to normal, do you want to go back to your old job or would this be a good point in your life where you could make it a transition, make it a pivot career pivot from what you've been doing to something that you would prefer to do instead? And the other question is, and I know it's not a happy question to be asking, but I need to ask it and that is, will your job even be available when all of this is over? Are you going to have a job to go back to? And the fact of the matter is a lot of people aren't. So what do you do? So I don't think this is the time for you to not do something about your job search. Even if you can't find the exact job that you're looking for because so many places that put a freeze on hiring, you can still be thinking in terms of your future. What is it that you would like to do moving forward and you can create the atmosphere for yourself by doing the actual activities of job search, including deciding what it is that you'd like to do next. That's always the biggest question, right? And once you've decided on that, you need to determine do you need some courses that would help you to get some training that would make you a more viable candidate for the kind of work you want to do? If you want to, if you want to take a course, now's a good time to do it. You can take most classes online and build up your skills in an area that you might have a deficit and you can be working on your resume. Now, the main thing on your resume is to think in terms of your achievements, not duties and responsibilities that everybody else has done. Think about the things that you've done that set you apart from everybody else. And then to the extent that you can, and this is a little more difficult for my teacher clients, but it's still possible. Try to think in terms of percentage of growth or if you, if you did a, if you were in charge of a huge fundraiser for your school for a renovation or a field trip or something that was something big that you needed to do, maybe, um, I don't know, to be able to build a new playground. If you were in charge of that and you can demonstrate that you were responsible for raising$10,000 just to throw out a figure and put that in your resume, that's, that's an achievement. If you helped your kids to raise their test scores, 10% include that. Figure out a way to include that, to show achievement, to show success. Because as far as hiring managers and recruiters and HR directors are concerned, past success predicts future success and they understand percentage points and dollar signs. They want to see achievements, they want to see accomplishments. So now's a good time for you to sit down and, and think back over the long term of your career and what are the accomplishments that you can point to. What are the achievements that set you apart from your colleagues? And as you make that list, what you're creating is the skeleton, the start of your resume. You'll build out the resume as you continue to work on it. But start with those accomplishments. And according to job scan, you need at least five. So think in terms of five accomplishments that can be validated or, or have some sort of verifiable value. And that's where you start. Don't wait until you have heard that you're not going to have a job to start this search that just forces you to panic. And then you can't think of all the things that you've done. So be proactive and even if your job is available, if you haven't been happy, maybe now's the time to start thinking about reinventing and retooling yourself for brand new career. Hold new start when all this is over and it will be over one of these days. We just don't know yet when, so use this time. You don't have a commute anymore. You don't have as many meetings as you did even if you're working remotely from home, you still have more time on your hands than you had before. Use that time wisely. Think about your future and start that list of all of the things that you've done that set you apart from everybody else. That can be the beginning of your resume. That's it for today. Thank you for listening in to teachers in transition. Again, my name is Kitty Boitnott. If you'd love, if you would please, I would love it if you would leave a comment or send me a question at KittyBoitnott@gmail., I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoy this podcast and you feel I could get value from it, please review it so that other people can find it and get some value from it as well. Next week we'll be talking about stress management strategies. Tune in again next week, but for now this is this is Kitty Boitnott. Have a great week. Stay safe and stay well. So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Hi, I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."