Flattening Curve: Should I Consider a Job or Career Change Now?

Steven Simon, Ph.D.

You've been isolating and social distancing and so far no symptoms or no known coronavirus. You also still have your job, working from home, and are making a good adjustment. The family is OK and so are you. So far so good, right? Well, good, but your career is pretty much on hold.

Before this pandemic you concluded you were so tired of this job, that you didn't know whether you could keep doing it for another week, let alone the rest of your career. You weren't even convinced this was the right career path for you. So at that point you were exploring new jobs and in fact had one potential offer just before stay at home orders went into effect. You decided to turn down the offer. Now with a trend of fewer new virus cases and more people recovered or recovering, your company may be opening the doors again and things may start to normalize, at least temporarily. So, should you just stay put and be thankful you have a job, or should you continue your job search?

This question came up in a podcast interview I did a few weeks ago. It's an important question because so many workers in the middle of their careers have been contemplating whether they want to see more meaning and advancement in their jobs during their remaining time in the workforce. Time is getting shorter if you're in your mid 40's, 50's or older.

Then, along comes COVID-19 with an upheaval in almost every sector of business and the work force worldwide. Just about everything I've seen and heard since business has closed down suggests big changes, not only now, but when things start to "normalize" on a large scale, which could be anywhere from a few months to more than a year. I have spoken to people in industries such as healthcare and information technology, where you would expect expansion to be taking place. Even in those so-called growth sectors there are major shake-ups happening in how the work is done, in the composition of work teams, and emergence of pockets of job losses. The health care industry, which seems overwhelmed in meeting demands of COVID-19. is laying off workers in some places because routine visits and elective surgeries have dropped off precipitously. In some areas of IT, contract and foreign workers are being laid off and jobs are changing for domestic employees.

When I answered the question on the podcast, I said whether you decide to change or not is an individual call based on the growth status of the industry and the circumstances of the new job. Now, even a few weeks later, as I see the extremely rapid pace of change and the unpredictability all around us, my advice would be tempered further. I'm suggesting waiting, if feasible, until the business world stabilizes a bit. If you're working now and it looks like your job is relatively stable, hold out on looking for another job or career that will be more meaningful, unless you are certain you would enter a stable situation. There's too much at stake in terms of unpredictability if we have new waves of the virus and business shut downs again after attempts at reopening, as many of the scientists predict.

However, you can still do something. Instead of actively looking for a new job, take this time to seriously reassess your skills, your interests, and the type of work environment in which you fit best. Once you do that you can create a new "general" resume. As I suggest in my book RELAUNCH!*, keep a general resume on your computer that you can modify when you apply for specific positions. The new deep assessment of your skills can then be used to highlight the most appropriate skills on modified resumes. These activities will place you in a front-of-the-line position to take advantage of opportunities for a meaningful job and career when we reach a more permanently restabilized  job market.

*RELAUNCH! now has an accompanying free workbook that simplifies and takes you through the full assessment of skills, including hidden skills, interests, and best-fit environment. It's available here

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