5 On Your Side: What now after being laid off
So many closures, so many people out of work.
Will jobs still be there when COVID-19 stops its destruction?
5 On Your Side spoke with career coach Meloney Miller.
She says a few moves are critical now, beyond the obvious ones like filing for unemployment and keeping a schedule, even if you're out of work.
"This is not a vacation," said Miller.
Looking ahead, she offered some points to consider:
"If I'm going back to my employer, then think about some of the projects you didn't have time to get to, work on those now. If I'm not, then maybe I need to be on YouTube, look at podcasts, sign up for free courses to enhance the skills," Miller said. "Transferable skills are going to be key moving forward."
Miller says during the 2007-2008 recession, those who took longer to bounce back were those who boxed themselves into a title instead of touting their skill set.
"Just because I have a title that says I support one person, I'm their administrative assistant, it doesn't mean that I'm not good at setting up events. It doesn't mean that I'm not proficient at proofreading," Miller said.
And until things start to rebound, she says some of us might need to take a job, any job, just to pay the bills.
"It's not a reflection of who you are as a person," Miller said. "It's actually showing that you're in survival mode."
