With Canada’s unemployment rate now at 13.7% (“Labour Force Survey, May 2020”, 2020), finding work can incite stress for many. This is especially the case for those working in an industry particularly affected by the pandemic, such as travel or event planning (Nguyen, 2020). If someone has lost their employment as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s possible they may be considering a shift in their career entirely. Some may be looking to change careers for practical reasons, as their current field of expertise may be especially hard hit. For others, current circumstances might simply be a wake-up call, as they realize that they do not enjoy their current line of work and would feel more fulfilled pursuing their passion.
A life coach can help their clients identify what they truly desire from their career, and how to work toward reaching their goals while overcoming the barriers presented by a recession. Here are four pieces of advice you can offer to clients wanting a new career in trying times.
Ask Clients to Evaluate What They Want to Do Most in Life
The first questions anyone looking for a career change should ask themselves are: “What do I want to do in life?” and “What career is going to make me happy?” (Nguyen, 2020). Encourage clients to evaluate what they value most in their professional life, and determine what kind of work they want to do based on their answers. After earning your certified life coach training, you can ask your clients what they would want to do even without any financial compensation (Stillman, 2010). You can also encourage clients to consider work in domains where they can apply some of the skills they developed in their previous profession (Nguyen, 2020). For example, a client may have excelled at and enjoyed one aspect of their previous career, such as communicating with customers. By exploring these interests, and whether they would want them to become a larger part of their future work, you can pinpoint which careers would be the best fit.
Make Sure Resumes and Cover Letters Are Fully Up to Date
During any application process, a person’s resume and cover letter will need to be well-crafted. When job hunting in an especially competitive market, these aspects will be even more important. You can help clients update their resume, cover letter, and online profile to reflect their most recent career accomplishments and voice them in a way that will be especially attractive to employers (Nguyen, 2020). Including number values and examples of accomplishments can help to provide objective evidence of different skills.
If Clients Know People in Their New Chosen Industry, Make Sure They Network
Connections of any kind in a person’s line of work are extremely valuable, so those with a life coach career should emphasize this to clients looking for a new professional endeavour. Be sure to encourage them to leverage online networking as much as possible in lieu of in-person events, so that they can continue to network throughout the pandemic and network with professionals abroad (Nguyen, 2020). As a life coach, you can encourage clients to work toward achieving their professional goals by incorporating a plan of action for interacting with connections. (Lebowitz, 2020). Encourage them to also identify companies they want to work for, and identify ways they can become acquainted with individuals at those companies (Goode-Henry, 2011).
Remind Clients to Focus Their Energy on Factors Within Their Control
While clients looking for a new career cannot control the outcome of the pandemic, or a possible recession resulting from its economic impact, what they can control is what they do with their efforts in finding the professional life they want (Lebowitz, 2020). Therefore, encourage them to not dwell on circumstances they cannot change, and instead focus on completing tasks that will help them work towards finding their desired career, even if they’re as simple as updating their online professional profile (Lebowitz, 2020). You can also advise clients to try getting training for the industry they want to enter, as well as considering which industries can withstand a recession and which ones cannot, so that they can make an informed choice for their future career (“How To Change Careers During A Recession”, 2020).
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Works Cited
Evans, P. (2020, March 27). How bad will Canada’s COVID-19 recession be? Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/covid-19-recession-economy-analysis-1.5510596
Goode-Henry, N. (2011, June 10). Reinventing Yourself Key in Economic Recession. Retrieved from http://www.regalmag.com/reinventing-yourself-key-economic-recession-a-650.html
How To Change Careers During A Recession. (2020, April 28). Retrieved from https://www.wgu.edu/blog/change-careers-during-recession2004.html
Labour Force Survey, May 2020. (2020, June 5). Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200605/dq200605a-eng.htm
Lebowitz, S. (2020, April 30). Recruiters and career coaches who survived the Great Recession share their most urgent advice for finding a job during a new economic downturn. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/job-search-professional-networking-recession-layoffs-career-experts-advice
Nguyen, T. (2020, May 12). How to make your job search more successful – even during a recession | CBC Life. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/life/work-money/how-to-make-your-job-search-more-successful-even-during-a-recession-1.5566662
Stillman, J. (2010, February 11). Career Change: Reinventing Yourself in a Recession is Possible. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/career-change-reinventing-yourself-in-a-recession-is-possible/
