Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

 

Coursera is opening access to its online education in a bid to help those newly unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gizmodo notes the service has made 3,800 courses and 400 specializations available for free through government agencies hoping to find jobs for residents. The courses teach top-level skills like business writing and job paths like app development, and you’ll find professional certificates from companies like Google, IBM and SAS.

 

Read Coursera makes courses available for free to the unemployed via Engadget

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I was chatting with a long time friend today on our private Discord server and he was telling us how he was about to start teaching his first remote class for his Junior High students. This man is one of the best educators I know. He is knowledgeable not only in technology, his educational topics of specialization but also in education itself.

It surprised me a bit when he confessed he was feeling very nervous about his first class. Again, this person is someone I consider an educator’s educator, but as with all of us, doubt can creep in at the oddest times.

Partly this is because we all consistently under-acknowledge and undervalue our own knowledge and skills. It seems to be a universal trait of human nature. Sure, there are the narcissistic and arrogant among us, but I believe the majority of us carry doubts and fears about our own abilities and in most cases these doubts and fears are baseless.

How do I know this? It is because I suffer in the same, human, way as everyone else. We always need to look for a trusted external source to tell us the truth about our own knowledge and skills. These are the friends who know when to tell us we are full of sh*t and know when we are not giving ourselves enough credit. It is here we find the truth which we can find so hard to see ourselves.

So, yes, it can be a little scary, a little stressful, even a bit panic-inducing but trust me, you’ve got this. You know how to do this and you know how to do it well. Will there be hiccups? Sure! Not every day in the classroom runs as smoothly as you might wish, but in the end, you (and your students) will be fine. You will get through this, together, and learn much along the way.

In fact, you might even find your skills growing with new innovations that you have been wanting to try but didn’t have space or time. Being forced into remote teaching might be the best thing for education in decades. Sometimes we need extraordinary circumstances — and the freedom to address those circumstances — to really grow in our profession, no matter what it might be.

Again, you’ve got this. I know because I know you. I can see the person you can’t always see in yourself.

What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments!

No one could have predicted our current reality as part of the 2020 employment forecast. As of March 26, over three million people have filed unemployment claims this week alone—the most in U.S. history. The stock market is in turmoil, drastically plummeting on an almost daily basis. The national government has now stepped in, offering bridge loans to small businesses to help them retain their employees.
 
We’re facing unprecedented times, and no one knows how long this will last. Since we cannot predict when the worst will be over or even when the virus will be contained, your best strategy is to focus on short-term solutions that will get you through this challenging time.

Doing nothing is not an option.

Read How you can find a job during the COVID-19 crisis via Fast Company

Aleksandar Cvetanovic

As with all global or national calamities, COVID-019 is going to cause a huge “reset” in its wake. Like 9/11, the 1918 Pandemic, Hurricanes, Tornados and more, people take stock in their lives and, in some cases, discover there is something more important than what they were doing before the crisis. It is only natural when faced with your mortality to reevaluate your life. What would people say about you had you died at that moment? How would your obituary read?

Alfred Nobel had a similar, personal, epiphany when he awoke one morning to find his obituary in place of his brother’s, who had died the day before. The newspapers obituary was scathing. It called him the “mercchant of death” and said “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” Alfred created the Nobel Prize as a way of recovering his reputation, and perhaps, purging himself of a small bit of his guilt over all the harm his creations had caused.

While I don’t believe that any of us carry the guilt the Nobel did, we can still take a good example from his horrible experience.

• Are you accomplishing what you want in life?
• Are you affecting the world, both your small, local, world and the world at large?
• What small concrete actions can you take to have that effect?
• What long postponed change do you need to make NOW?
• What is stopping you?
• Why?

The world is being turned upside down in the wake of COVID-19 and instead of worrying about it, perhaps we can imagine how we can use this Great Reset to craft a new day, a new life and a new world for everyone!

You X Ventures

Things that will be in large supply once this is over…

• Retail/Restaurant/Commercial Real Estate
• Talent — in all fields
• Stimulus Money
• Businesses looking to grow again

What can you build from these? Is it time to start your own business? Is it time to move to a better career?

You want to start your plans now so you are ready to move as soon as the opportunity provides itself. It will be the first movers that benefit the most because they will have access to the best unemployed/underemployed talent in their fields and, hopefully, stimulus money before it runs out.

Don’t Wait! Start Planning Today!

Ok, a little “blue sky” thinking for  a time when this crisis (or at least the worst of this crisis) is over…

• What are you planning for when restrictions begin to be lifted?
• What will you change?
• What will remain the same?
• What new ideas/projects/habits will you begin?
• What are you going to do strictly for yourself and your family?
• How will the world be different for you?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Photo: Danielle MacInnes via Unsplash

COVID-19 and Your Job: Tips and Actions to Consider via Indeed

COVID-19 continues to dominate the news cycle and raise important questions around health care and prevention. The spread of the virus has more recently caused the cancelation of many events and conferences, and many employers have asked their workforce to work from home.

In this article, we offer actionable steps you can take to position yourself for success during an unpredictable and challenging season.

Staying productive during COVID-19

Depending on your situation, there are a number of steps you can take to be proactive when it comes to supporting yourself and your loved ones and being content at work. Here are tips by circumstance:

Read COVID-19 and Your Job: Tips and Actions to Consider via Indeed

Transition as the New Normal with Douglas E. Welch at Tuesdays with Transitioners

Douglas E. Welch presents to Tuesdays with Transitioners in Northridge, California on “Transition as the New Normal” on July 14 2014.

While we all might like to think that transition is a short term process, it is not a fleeting process we fall into and out of. Rather, life is truly nothing but one long transition — a state of constant flux. We might have dreams and desires for stability, but in a world that is constantly changing, stability is only an illusion and a temporary one at that.

Transition is the New Normal. It is a constant part of our lives and careers and if we understand that, we can use it to our advantage.

When you first realize that you are always in transition, it can seem a bit frightening. It can feel like you are the mercy of the time and tides, being buffeted about without any ability to control what is happening around you. You do have some control, but it requires that you pay deep attention to your life, your thoughts, and your actions. Yes, if you let the world push you around, it will gladly (and easily) do so. If you, instead, take your life directly into your own hands, you can ride the waves of change and transition in ways that best benefit you.

Douglas is writer and host of Career Opportunities, a long running column and podcast dedicated to “Helping to Build the Career You Deserve!” Career Opportunities began in 1997 as a magazine column and expanded to a podcast in 2004. Douglas is also a New Media Consultant, Technology and Career Consultant with over 30 years experience in high-tech. You can find all of Douglas’ work at DouglasEWelch.com.

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Audio: Transition as the New Normal with Douglas E. Welch at OPEN Ventura County (47 min)

Douglas E. Welch presents “Transition as the New Normal” to OPEN (Outstanding Professionals Employment Network) Ventura County in Simi Valley, CA on February 27 2015.

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Also mentioned in this talk is “Career Compass: Finding Your Career North”, an Amazon Kindle booklet

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The secret to career change is doing something — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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When you are in the midst of a career change you can become overwhelmed with all the busy work involved. You spend your days scanning advertisements, preparing cover letters and resumes, making phone calls and more. While these activities are certainly important to your job search, I want you to look beyond them to something even more important. After the envelopes are in the mail and the calls returned and the advertisements reviewed I want you to get out and actually “Do” something. I want you to move outside these internal tasks and take some time to engage with the world around you.

Read The secret to career change is doing something — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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