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

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

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!

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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Share your work philosophy — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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As I have often said in past columns and speaking engagements, telling people “what you do and how well you do it” is of the utmost importance in any career today. Even so, we can all have difficulty in finding ways to share this message with those around us. You might wonder what you can and should be saying about your work and career. In an effort to move you forward in promoting your own work, here are a few example methods for sharing your work and gaining larger benefits from your skills and knowledge.

Read Share your work philosophy — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Make it clearer, not more confusing — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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As someone who has spent their life working to support, train and educate people, I have learned again and again how important it is to be able to explain difficult concepts quickly and clearly. A good explanation can help everyone involved leap forward in their understanding and productivity. There are few tools as powerful as a good explanation to help people work to their highest potential, but there is a bit of an art to creating and delivering great explanations and answers to tough questions. Here are a few guidelines I have developed over the years to help me be better at explaining and always work towards making concepts and ideas clearer, not more confusing.

Read Make it clearer, not more confusing — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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The Client Dance — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Working with any client is a dance — or at least it should be. Dancing partners have to learn a lot about each other — how they move, where they move, how they communicate their moves — and working with any freelance client is much the same. Just as when you are learning to dance, there will be mistakes, missteps and a few toes are sure to be stepped upon. It is part of the nature of learning and developing any relationship.

 

Read The Client Dance — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!