Re: Writing Your Narrative
On a recent video chat through Lunchclub, I was lucky to meet a wonderful woman whose career has been sidetracked because of COVID-19. I had been looking forward to meeting her from the moment I received the invitation as had made a career of working for NGOs across the globe. Upon meeting her, she did not disappoint on any level. She was bright, engaging, and intelligent. She had amazing stories of her work across the globe. As wonderful as the conversation was, it also saddened me because, despite an impressive work history and her enormous gifts, she was struggling with being out of work. Most of all she seemed disheartened that COVID-19 would most likely change the way of work in her field, dashing her hope of returning to her former career. She also saw similar organizations making the same paradigm shift in their goals and strategies.
Listening to her broke my heart and made me a little angry. Here was a gifted and talented individual who (IMHO) organizations should have been tripping over themselves to hire. She had education, experience, and talent. Besides her law degree, she was trilingual. She knew local cultures and policies. She had local and international contacts. And yet, here she was despondent, thinking that perhaps her entire career had led her to a dead end. Few things make me angrier than wasting talent. I will never understand why organizations let people go without realizing that they are losing valuable skills.
But far more than that, I was saddened by hearing the helplessness in her voice—the rejection and incomprehension in her voice were heavy. Instinct took over and what was supposed to be a networking call quickly switched to a coaching call. At least for me. We discussed ways that she could be proactive in her career. She loved teaching and had done it before. We discussed that she could hold informational webinars to teach others the things we knew. We talked about her writing a series of short stories about her adventures in South America. We talked about what she really saw herself doing for the next chapter of her career. I saw an immediate change. She went from leaving into her hands to gesturing excitedly as we talked out the multiple options open to her. Her voice went from a quiet acceptance to an excited tempo. We ended the call with her promising me that she would really think about what we had discussed and follow up.
All too often we think our lives and our careers are in the hands of others. Especially when we are unemployed. It is so hard to pull out of the feelings we have of disappointment and rejection when we lose a job. We wait for other organizations and even for life to offer us new opportunities. We don’t have to. Opportunities are there for us every day. We make them, they are not made for us. All we have to do is make that paradigm shift to realize we own our lives and our careers. This is the first step in making things happen. This is the first step in our Re: Working Journeys.
What direction do you want to take in your Re: Working Journey?
