3 Build Yourself Women Experiencing Career Growth During COVID
Are you feeling stressed about everything right now?
If you’re like many of my clients—on top of everything: this election, the wildfires, the climate crisis—you’re also facing a general constant anxiety about the economy.
Maybe you’ve been laid off, or your pay was reduced. Even if you haven’t been laid off, you might be worrying about a layoff or how the economy in the next six to eight months will affect your field.
But the bad news is not the only story.
In the last few weeks, a number of Build Yourself clients have gotten jobs and experienced career growth during COVID—even in industries that are slowing down or laying people off.
And these aren’t just pandemic-fueled desperation “I needed to land something” jobs. These are jobs that are real platforms for their visions and values, and the work they most like to do.
I’d like to share their good news of career growth during COVID with you.
Preeti Sodhi just landed a job as the Director of Community Engagement at Friends of the High Line.
After working for Spaceworks NYC for six years (an organization that developed artist space in the city), Preeti took a step back to consider her next career move—and then the pandemic happened.
But at Friends of the High Line, Preeti, who is passionate and knowledgeable about artist engagement and working with small businesses, will be able to put forward that mission and put her expertise in developing partnerships to use.
Donna Thibodeau, another client of mine, just landed a job as Capital Project Management Lead at Pfizer.
Donna will be leveraging her experience designing business processes and systems in this strategic leadership role. She’ll work across departments (cross-functional collaboration is another one of her passions) to make sure that all parts of the business have their building and facility needs met.
Nicole Vance, another client, just started a new role this week as a landscape designer at the Copley Wolff Design Group.
Even though hiring slowed down in Nicole’s field due to the pandemic, while in my program, Nicole thoughtfully and patiently developed new relationships with landscape architecture leadership and improved her application materials.
And it paid off with a new job at a firm she feels aligned with—and one that has opportunities for growth and challenge.
As a working mom, Nicole will also be part of the firm’s committee developing a new parental leave policy.
I heard recently from one unemployed woman who landed an interview (ya!). But she was so nervous going into it. She kept circling over the big scary stats we’re all hearing: how many many thousands of jobs are being cut every month.
She couldn’t stop thinking about how much competition there must be for this role.
Her interview was not successful.
Our mindsets affect our performance.
And the large scale trend is not the only story.
I hope these stories give you a hit of hope in these uncertain times.
