Four Ways to Keep Growing Your Career in Quarantine
Being stuck at home can begin to feel like being stuck in life. If you can’t leave the house, you can’t even network, attend meetings, or do any of the things you’d normally do to keep growing yourself as an employee and as a business person, it may feel as though you will just need to wait until you can get back into the real world to continue growing your career.
However, that’s just not true! It might require some extra motivation, but these are a few things you can do to help launch your career to the next step while working at home.
Add a skill to your resume
Instead of bingeing Tiger King, check out online courses on topics that may benefit your career. You could brush up on your marketing techniques, learn graphic design, even learn how to build websites or write more effectively. Many of these courses are low cost or even free and give you the chance to learn a new skill without leaving your home. The time you invest now could pay huge dividends when life gets back to normal.
Learn new things
Learning new things keeps your brain active. It has long term positive effects on mental health. Taking the time to learn something new is a positive step even if it might not be directly related to your business. Whether it’s how to buy bitcoin or why alligators brumate, take the time to research something that is interesting to you and flex those brain cells in new ways.
Network online
Meeting up in person right now is definitely a bad idea. Everyone is bored at home, so it might be a great chance to network online. Browse Facebook or LinkedIn for people you aren’t connected with yet and take some time to catch up. Virtual happy hours are happening all over the world too, and the benefit of those is that you can spend time with friends who live all over the world!
Check-in with employees and coworkers
Take the time to show the people that you care about at work that you still care about them when you don’t see them every day. Office relationships are important, and many times can become friendships. Don’t let those friendships die out while you’re busy focusing on the work side of your life. See how they are doing mentally and emotionally. This time is hard on all of us. Knowing that someone cares will keep employees and coworkers working hard and loyal.
It’s easy to get in a rut when you’re working from home, keeping the same routine day in and out. Setting a few goals to accomplish each day or even each week can keep your career moving forward even while you can’t get out into the “real” world. Now it could be a really great time to get a few things done that you wouldn’t have done otherwise. By thinking outside the box a bit, you can come out of this ahead of the game.
Feature Photo by Natalia Figueredo on Unsplash