5 Helpful Career Tips During and After Covid-19 Lockdown
At a webinar organised by JarusHub, Nigeria’s most resourceful career platform and JarusHub Career Club, Taiwo Oyedele, President at Impact Africa Foundation and Partner at PwC Nigeria, shares tips on positioning for opportunities during and after Covid-19 lockdown.
The tips:
1. Stay safe: You have to obey and comply all the rules and guidance from government, relevant government agencies like NCDC and the Ministries of Health, as well as your employers for those with jobs. Remember to stay at home and observe social distancing.
2. Stay sane: Maintain your physical well-being by finding time to exercise, walk out. You have to stay sane mentally. Think positively. Avoid the negativity going around. Ignore the many conspiracy theories being passed around. This is not the time to be passing conspiracy theories about 5G or that the world is coming to an end. Once you delve into negativity zone, it will be difficult to recover and it may have consequences on yourself and your career.
3. Stay informed: Your sources of information must be credible. For health and safety issues, rely on credible sources like WHO, NCDC, Federal Ministry of Health as well as credible media. Avoid fake news. This also means focusing on self-development. If you have not read a new book yet during this lockdown, you may have missed a good opportunity but it is never too late, you can still pick a good book and read now. Be mindful that almost every job interview or other opportunities you encounter post-COVID-19, you are likely to be asked questions on COVID-19. If you are not informed you are going to be telling them conspiracy theories and you will lose the opportunities. This is the time to think about how COVID-19 affects your work, your job, your industry; how it affects digital skills. You need to upskill your digital acumen as digital will play a more important role going forward; you need to stay informed.
4. Stay productive: How are you you spending the lockdown period? It is recommended that you spend at least 8 hours in a day doing productive work, 8 hours to relax (including sleeping) and 8 hours for for creativity, thinking and ensuring that you are getting better than you were the previous day. Think of opportunities and be prepared to think of ways of taking the opportunities when they come.
5. Stay connected: Who are you connected with? What do you use social media for? If you go to your social media pages, who are the people who are following? Are they people you wish to be like? How are you spending your time online? Are you doing any online course? You have to say connected, but be connected to the right people, people of like-minds, not people making up conspiracy theories.
In the end, this too shall pass. In a time of crisis, recognise the risk but pay attention to the opportunities.
Listen to Taiwo’s full presentation here
Other presenters:
Akeem Oyewale, CEO at StanbicIBTC Nominees Limited
James Odiase, former Manager at Shell and Seven Energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFyzg80kG6g
