By: Juston Teach
“It’s a global pandemic, you should feel lucky that you are still employed.” If I had a dime for the number of times, I heard that phrase, I wouldn’t need to work. Still, finding a job in the midst of a global pandemic is not only possible, it becomes a journey of self-discovery.
There should be no allusions of grandeur. Job searching is tough, especially in a pandemic. In the best of times, job searching leads to countless hours retyping your resume in an online portal, being ghosted by recruiters and being met with unreasonable requirements for even an entry level position. In a global pandemic, all of the above but with fewer jobs and more competition.
Why should you even begin now and not wait until things have found their way to whatever the next normal will be? Because you are worth so much more than you might give credit to. To brazenly open yourself up to a dwindling job market in a very uncertain future not only pushes you to the brink, it solidifies the notion that anything can be possible.
It was for me. Please don’t be fooled. My job search was tough and mixed with a lot of emotions. Am I doing the right thing? Why should I leave comfort and reliability for something new? What if I fail? See? Plenty of self-doubt to go around. But I knew one thing that kept me motivated, my worth.
Suddenly with the right mindset, the trials and tribulations of job searching weren’t that bad. Ghosted? On to the next one. Have to re-fill out all the information in my resume to an online portal? Worth the extra 5 minutes of cutting and pasting. I was making headway and more importantly, I was doing what few people feel comfortable with, betting on myself.
In the end it did work out for me, granted not on the timeline that I was hoping for. I accepted a new position and hit the ground running. Virtual onboarding was weird to say the least. All of my interactions with new colleagues have been virtual which is tough to build relationships through, but in the end, it was worth it.
Know your worth and always bet on yourself. Advice that I have always heard and until recently never gave much mind to. It is however, the best advice I have ever received and I implore all who read this to follow it, you never know where it may lead.
About the Author:
Juston Teach
President-Elect, IABC Chicago
Managing Producer, Multimedia Content
PCMA
Juston Teach is the Managing Producer, Multimedia Content for PCMA where he oversees the production of content ranging from video to written communications. Prior to joining PCMA, Juston was Director of Virtual Events for Lawrence Ragan Communications, where he lead a team of virtual events producers with the goal of creating the best content for internal and external communicators. Before he came to Lawrence Ragan Communications, Juston helped lead the way on a grassroots marketing and public relations campaign for the Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau that led to over 1 billion earned media impressions for a professional lumberjack competition. Juston spent his early career as a photojournalist, documenting life throughout the Midwest. His images and videos have been published through various outlets, most notably the Chicago Sun-Times, ABC and ESPN. Juston graduated Purdue University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.