All Episodes

October 28, 2020 • 33 mins

The pandemic has changed a ton about what jobs are available, how we get them, and how we navigate the workforce day to day. Today we discuss some practical tips for moving forward, getting hired, and making sure we're prepared to be successful in a world that's still figuring out what normal looks like.

www.levelthepursuit.com

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
LTP (00:07):
Level the Pursuit is a podcast for people ready to make
the most of every opportunity.
In the race to success, we'renot all starting from the same
place. Level the Pursuit seeksto fill in the gaps and provide
accessible, bite-sizedleadership lessons for anyone
looking to improve their skillsand prepare for the next step,
whatever that might be.
Last week, we talked aboutincorporating professional

(00:28):
development for your long termgrowth. Getting good at our jobs
is great. But if we don'tdevelop as leaders, and as
people, we can't continue tochallenge ourselves, and we run
the risk of stagnating overtime. Did you create a
development plan to go with yourgoals? If you did, that's
fantastic. Having a plan canminimize the chance that you'll
miss an opportunity. If youdidn't, spend some time this

(00:50):
week working that into yourgoals. The more complete we are
as leaders, the more prepared weare when we get the chance to
shine. This week, we're going totalk about professionalism
during a pandemic, trying tomove forward while COVID is
happening has been a challengefor people and working during a
global pandemic has highlightedso many good and bad things
about business as usual in ourcountry, and really in the

(01:13):
world. So we've definitely hadto make adjustments to keep
moving forward. While there'snot really a right or wrong
answer to most of thesequestions, there are definitely
ways you can maintain yourimage, be a rock star, and stay
safe as we ride it out.
Over the next week, think aboutwhere you want to be when we
finally get through thispandemic or a year from now. And

(01:33):
hopefully those are the samething. This enormous disruption
to our country in our lives, canbe an opportunity to fall apart.
But it can also be a chance torecharge, regroup, and come out
stronger on the other side.
First, regardless of your jobsituation, we all have to try to

(01:53):
keep moving forward. Now, I'mnot going to say stay positive,
because this is definitely atime when toxic positivity can
rear his ugly head. Now, ifyou've ever heard of that
before, that's a mindset whereyou tell people that things are
good even when they're not, andtell them that it's a weakness
if they can't keep a positiveattitude. You know what,
sometimes stuff just sucks. Andwe have to deal with that. But

(02:15):
it's still life, and we don'thave a choice. As far as moving
forward, you can't movebackward, we can't go back to
where it was before COVID. So atthe very least try to keep
putting one foot in front of theother to see what we can do to
come out stronger on the otherside. Now, I've had a few
discussions about this recently.
And y'all also may have heard myepisode on mental health. But
this has been hard on a lot ofpeople so much about this has

(02:39):
been a challenge. I know for mepersonally, one of the hardest
parts is feeling like I don'tunderstand why it's so hard, why
I'm struggling with so many ofthese things, so much the
disruption and the way we'redoing things. So give yourself a
break. Understand that thisisn't normal for anyone.
Everybody that's dealing withthis is dealing with it in their
own way. But if you want to keepmoving forward, you can do that.

(03:02):
It may be a teeny, tiny babystep. But as long as it's a step
forward, you're going in theright direction.
Now, if you have a job rightnow, take a moment to be
grateful. It may be awful. Andany changes you've made for
COVID may be ridiculous, andpainful and may just make you

(03:22):
absolutely crazy. But in mostcases, it's preferable to not
having a job. And there are alot of people in America who are
struggling with that right now.
So sometimes that might be allyou have to cling to. So if you
can do now, if everything aboutthis job is making your life
absolutely miserable, that's adifferent situation. But if you
have anything redeeming aboutit, be grateful for it, because

(03:43):
there are a lot of people thatwould love to be in that
position right now. Now, if youhave a job and you're going to
jump to work each day, it maynot be a picnic. And I
understand that. So you have tobalance being safe. If you're in
one of the industries that isfrontlines-- so hospitality,
sanitation, health care, peoplethat are dealing with people all
the time are amazing, grocerystore workers, everyone who's

(04:05):
doing all these things, to keepour society going, you have to
balance being safe.
Don't be afraid to askquestions, ask questions about
your policies about the safetymeasures that your company is
taking. But understand that yoursupervisors and their
supervisors and even the bigbosses may not have the answer

(04:25):
because honestly, our countrydoesn't have the answers right
now. This is unprecedented. Iknow everyone's tired of hearing
that word, but it's the truth.
We don't have a frame ofreference for how to deal with
this. So it's absolutelyreasonable to ask the questions,
but you have to understand thatwe don't have all the answers
yet. So we're all doing the bestwe can. So along those lines,
try to give some grace to yourco workers, your clients, your

(04:47):
boss, and understand thatsometimes temperature short
sometimes people behave in a waythat's not that great. Try to
chill with that. Now ifsomeone's being a total jerk,
It's okay to recognize thatthey're being a total jerk. But
you don't have to go to thatlevel. You don't have to
escalate the situation. So tryto show do the best you can. If
you are having a little bitbetter mental health day than

(05:10):
someone else, then give themsome grace. Now, if you're in
one of the industries in ourcountry that's kind of shaky
right now, because of having toshut down because of the
coronavirus. It is totallyreasonable to talk to your boss
about getting a letter ofreference. So how do you do
that? If there's someone yourespect, you can very simply
just go to them and say, Hey, Irespect you. I've enjoyed

(05:32):
working with you. I waswondering if you feel
comfortable providing me aletter of reference, very
straightforward. And they cansay yes or no. If they say yes,
in most circumstances, it ishelpful for you to write a
template, or kind of write askeleton of what you want them
to, to include or what you wantit to look look like. Or if

(05:52):
there's particular aspects ofhow you work that you want them
to include. You want to supplythat to them. But you can ask
them what they want. Some peoplelike you to kind of write the
whole letter, and they're justgoing to sign it. And other
people just want to know, Ipersonally, I don't mind people
giving me what they would liketo include, but I'm going to
rewrite it in my own words,because it's, you know, if I'm

(06:12):
signing it, I want it to be inmy words, but there's some
people that are like, Okay, thisis what you want. That sounds
good. I agree with all this, I'mjust going to sign it. So ask
them what they want, and beprepared for that. If they tell
you no, don't be upset about it,either. They don't have time,
they don't feel like they cangive you a strong enough
reference, or they're just notinterested in doing it. That's
okay. But be grateful that theysaid that instead of writing you

(06:33):
a crappy reference letter,because a bad reference letter
is way worse than having one. Soyou definitely don't want to do
that. But just ask. And it'sreasonable to do that. You also
might ask if they're willing tomake a phone call on your
behalf. If you're in an industrythat's hurting, right now, it's
probably not going to be asurprise to them. Now, if you're
not comfortable doing that, withthese people with your current
boss, your current leadership,totally understandable. But you

(06:55):
should start thinking aboutpeople in your industry or
people that you trust that couldgive you a reference, if you
think that your job might be arisk. And keep an eye out either
in your own industry or outside,start thinking about your other
skills, maybe offshoots of thecurrent job that you have. But
start looking at ways to expandyour skill set or expand the
things you already know how todo in order to turn them into

(07:15):
consistent and steady income.
Because right now, we don'treally have a good end date for
how things are going to go. Soit's a good idea to start
thinking ahead, if you thinkthat your industry might be at
risk. also reach out to yournetwork. If people are in your
industry, they may have sometips and tricks for things that

(07:36):
are really working or reallyaren't, or ideas how to expand
your capabilities to make surethat you continue to stay
relevant. And if they're outsideyour industry, they may have
some ideas that you wouldn'tnecessarily have been exposed
to. And then you can find outwhat works and what doesn't and
who's growing because there area few industries that are
growing. And you can actuallysearch and find hundreds of

(07:56):
companies that are hiring andgrowing during COVID. So take
some time with that. And then,you know, if you like the
industry you're in if this iswhere you want to be, start
thinking about ways that yourindustry or your particular job
can better adjust to thepandemic, can you expand or
change your services to betterserve your clients? Can you stay
relevant? Can you grow? Thereare options for this. I mean,

(08:18):
things have expanded, thingshave changed under COVID
operations. So you might find away to actually move forward.
And that's awesome. Butregardless, be smart about your
finances, if there's a chancethat your income isn't going to
be steady. Don't make any crazypurchases. You know, do what you
can to get your bills down aslow as you can. If you can defer
anything, you know, look forrelief, there are federal

(08:39):
programs for relief look andfind out what that is. So that
you can make sure that ifsomething does go downhill, it's
not a surprise, and that you'reprepared for it.
Okay, so what if you don't havea job, but you don't need one?
Well, first of all, if you'relucky, because most of us do
need to work. But if you don'tthat's cool for you. Stay home
when you can be smart aboutgoing out. When you do have to

(09:02):
go out be smart about the locallaws in your area. If you're
supposed to wear a mask andyou're supposed to to physically
distance from the people aroundyou please do that mask where it
has turned so political. It'sridiculous. But wearing a mask
does protect other people fromyou to an extent. So if you're
supposed to wear one, pleasewear one bilateral mask where

(09:23):
does reduce the chance of covidtransmission? And yes, we could
get into a whole debate aboutthe deadliness of the virus
compared to influenza andsmallpox and everything else.
Noted I got it. However, it isthe law just follow the law.
Right? Just Just follow the law.
It's consider it. It doesn'thurt you. As a surgeon. I will
tell you I've spent hours andhours and hours and hours and

(09:43):
hours with a mask taped to myface which believe me is not
very comfortable. And you knowwhat? I was fine and I didn't
get too much co2 it was okay. Soplease wear a mask if you're
supposed to. But if you don'thave to go out, use this time to
recharge use it to do all thethings that you You want it to
do in your house use it to do tospend some time reading or
thinking or exercising, orwhatever it is you wanted to do.

(10:06):
You can also boost your skills,there are tons of online
classes, and many are free orreduced tuition during COVID.
And so spend the time learningsomething new, this is a great
time to get ahead in yourtraining or your experience for
whatever your ultimate goalsare. And then be smart about
your timeline. So if you'vesaved up for this, and that's

(10:26):
why you don't need to work rightnow. Well, things are moving a
lot slower during COVID, hiringprocesses, onboarding, all that
stuff is moving slower in thevirtual environment. So if you
anticipate that you're going toneed to go back to work, plan
ahead and start early. Becauseif you wait till the last
minute, it's possible, you'regoing to create a gap that you
weren't anticipating. So thinkahead.

(10:48):
Now, if you don't have a job,and you need one, which is a lot
of people in our country, rightnow, you have to have an open
mind about this, you need toapply widely for location and
industry be ready to takewhatever. Now if you're
exploring any options that arecompletely remote apply
everywhere, you know, if they'rewilling to hire you across the
country then apply. I mean, atsome point, yes, it could be an

(11:08):
issue if you you know, as wemove back to normal operations,
or whatever that might looklike, and you have to travel.
But right now, if you just needa job, and you want to fill in
this gap in your resume, it'sreasonable to just go ahead and
apply. If there are certaincompanies that you're interested
in, you can set up alertsthrough search engines for the
companies that you like. And itwill tell you when things happen

(11:29):
when things are posted and ontheir websites or when they make
the news. And so that'll tellyou the issues that they're
dealing with and there are tonsof people hiring, so do some
work to find out who's hiring,and then follow them. In my
podcast on interview tips andtricks. I talk a lot about being
prepared for an interview andunderstanding what what
companies are going through. Butthis is a great time to do that.

(11:49):
Because some companies aregrowing and others are having
serious issues. So you shouldreally know what's going on in
the companies that you'reinterested in. Next, you need to
prioritize what is your goal?
Do you need to eat and supportyour family will any job do? Or
are you able to wait forsomething that works towards
your ultimate goals? If you justneed a job, then you need to

(12:11):
have the mindset that any honestlabor is honorable and is worth
pursuing. I had a lot of jobsand some of them were not very
fun. But they all paid me anhonest wage. And at the end of
the day, I was happy to earn it.
So if you limit yourself bycutting out everything that
doesn't sound fun, or you don'twant to do, you're actually
taking a huge portion of the jobmarket off the table.

(12:31):
Now we've seen as the pandemichas evolved, that we have moved
into a predominantly virtualenvironment, so much stuff is
moving online. And so you reallyneed to take some time to
familiarize yourself with whatplatforms your industry is
using. Some of the most commonare zoom, Microsoft Teams, and
whatever it is, find out whatthey use, and then familiarize

(12:52):
yourself with them. If you can,you need to make sure that you
have reliable internet withadequate bandwidth. And there
are some tricks to reducebandwidth, you can kind of go
online and find out for thedifferent platforms. But in
general, if you reduce the sizeof pictures, if you turn off
your own cameras, you're notuploading your video feed, there
are certain things you can do todecrease the bandwidth that

(13:13):
you're using as you go through.
But it is important you do thatif you're going to be working
online a lot. And you can useyour phone or other devices. But
most of the platforms do havedifferent capabilities depending
on the platform that you'reusing. So you need to find out
what they are. In general, acomputer is going to be the most
fully capable device that youcan use your phone, an iPad, you
know any kind of smaller deviceor like for zoom specifically,

(13:38):
if you use their web browser, asopposed to the app, there are
limited capabilities. So youshould be familiar with that and
find out what your industryuses. So you're going to do that
you need to practice if you'reif you're not someone that does
a lot of stuff online, youshould practice with someone
before you have to do it in ajob situation. So zoom is free
for two people as long as youwant in more than two people. It
kicks you off after 40. And thisis not, i'm not sponsored by

(14:00):
zoom I'm not advocating for zoomis just a platform that I'm very
familiar with. I'm going to giveyou examples that are mostly
from zoom. But you can have morethan two people for up to 40
minutes and it kicks off. Sopractice with someone when
you're talking to them. Look atthe camera when you're having a
conversation. Look at it whenyou're talking look at it when
they're talking. If you find itdistracting to look at the
camera and you need to look attheir actual picture, then

(14:22):
spotlight their picture and thenmove it right up underneath your
camera so that you're basicallylooking at the camera because it
is very distracting to talk tosomeone when they're looking off
to their left or the right andit looks like they're not
focusing. So you really want toshow that you're engaged with
the person you're talking to.
When you're in professionalsituations, you need to dress
the part from head to toe. It'sa you know widely accepted joke

(14:45):
that people are dressed onlyfrom you know the waist up and
they're wearing their daytimejammies or boxers or whatever it
is from the waist down. You needto actually dress the part
because if for some reason youhave to stand up and move around
during it. You want to be aprofessional all the way down.
So make sure sure that you'resmart enough that you want to
check your lighting you can get,obviously, there's specific
lighting that you can get forfor cameras. But in general,

(15:07):
just check your lighting, makesure you're not backlit. So it
looks like you're, you know,witness protection, you want to
make sure that people canactually see your face, there
are filters you can use, if thatmakes you happy to use that you
can do that. But in general, youwant to try to show yourself to
your best, this isn't a beautycontest, but you do want to look
your best, you want to checkyour background. If you can

(15:27):
control it. Ideally, you want tohave a wall behind you, that's
either plain or has conservativestuff on the wall, you don't
have a bunch of inappropriatepictures or phrases on the wall
behind you. Especially if you'renot alone, try to make it so
that there's not people passingbehind where you're going to be
because that can be reallydistracting to you and to the
people that you're speakingwith. So you want to try to make

(15:47):
it as professional and asconservative and boring as
possible. And although virtualbackgrounds can be super fun, in
general, if this isn't someonethat you're well acquainted
with, it's not a good idea. Notonly can it be distracting, and
look a little bitunprofessional, but also,
depending on your camera and thebackground, sometimes it can
kind of go in and out. And thatcan be very distracting to the

(16:09):
person talking to you.
Now, if you've used some ofthese platforms, you know that
in general, only one person cantalk at a time because of the
way the sound works. So whenyou're speaking pause before you
speak, to make sure the otherperson has finished because the
delay in a lot of our internetconnections and kind of how
these platforms work, is a lotof times people will be speaking

(16:32):
at the same time. And that canbe very frustrating. And it can
really set you off to on a badfoot even though no one did
anything wrong. So take a secondto make sure they're finished
talking before you start totalk, especially if they're
asking you a question orinterviewing you wait, because
you're going to have a chance totalk. So wait and give them a
chance to finish. And ingeneral, when you're talking,
you want to try to nod and useother nonverbals to show the

(16:56):
agreement or to show that you'repaying attention. Because if you
say Aha, yeah, right, itactually pulls the sound. So it
can be really confusing and canmess up the discussion. So you
want to be aware of that. And asyou nod, you want to exaggerate
it a little bit, use your entirehead, because if there's a lot
of people and your picture isvery small, it can be very hard
to see your reaction. So youwant to exaggerate that a little

(17:17):
bit as you go. And if you talkwith your hands, you want to do
it slowly and deliberately, itcan look really jerky and
confusing if you move your handsreally fast. Obviously, when
you're having a discussion whereit's only showing you from the
neck up, you're probably notgonna be able to see your hands
anyway. But if you do talk withyour hands, and you can see them
in your frame, just make sureyou do it in a really concerted

(17:38):
manner. And you pay attention towhat you're doing. So you're not
distracting to the person that'slistening to you. And as you
come into any chat room, or anyinterview, or whatever it is,
make sure that you're on mute,your camera can be on or off.
Honestly, it's easier ifeverything is off. But you
definitely want to be on mutejust because you're still
talking to your family, you'redoing what you have to, you
know, any bodily functions thatescape, who knows. But you want

(18:02):
to be on mute, and make sureyour screen name is appropriate,
especially if you use it forsocial interactions. If you talk
to your friends on on whateverplatform it is, you want to make
sure that you name yourselfappropriately and that you look
like a professional. If you'rein an industry that uses visual
aids, learn how to do that. Soif you're going to have to learn
how to present slides, use thewhiteboard, use any of the

(18:23):
annotation functions, practicethat ahead of time, because it's
one of those things thateveryone kind of understands if
it's a little bit Rocky, but italso after a second, it kind of
starts to look a little bitunprepared. But if you're
prepared and it goes smoothly,you look like a total rock star.
So that's an easy place to getahead and look a little bit more
polished than you did before.

(18:43):
Now because we've transitionedto so much virtual employment
virtual learning, you do need tomake sure that your online
persona is where it needs to be.
So you need to clean up yourprofiles, you need to clean up
your email addresses. If you'restill using, you know
hotdude37@gmail.com, maybe cleanit up, get a work address so
that you can look a little bitmore professional. If you've

(19:05):
been spending a lot of time onFacebook and Instagram. Dude, I
gotcha. I'm there with you. Butmaybe spend a little bit of time
on LinkedIn, beef up thatprofile, get some new contacts,
make sure that it reflects whatyou're trying to look for and
who you want to be online.
Ensure all of your resumes areup to date. And LinkedIn has
opportunities to post that aswell. But a lot of companies use

(19:26):
algorithms that search yourresume to get through that
initial screening to make surethat it actually goes to a
person to be evaluated. So checkthe job description to make sure
that you're addressing theskills that they're looking for.
And you can include some ofthose buzzwords, obviously you
know, as we talked about aninterview tips and tricks,
you're not going to just cut andpaste it you want it to make
sure it's it's true, and thenaddresses the actual thing

(19:49):
actually the things you'redoing, but you should absolutely
look and see what words they'relooking for. And if they apply
to you make sure they're inthere because those algorithms
are going to scan for thosewords. And as always in any
hurry. Written Communication,anything you post online, you
spell check, use grammar check,make sure that you're squared
away, because that is your firstimpression. And that's what
people think of you, when theysee, when they see the words

(20:10):
that you've written, they'regoing to get an impression of
you. So you've applied, you'reready to go.
And now you're going to have aninterview. So if they give you
the option of in a phoneinterview, or an in person
interview, you should really dowhat feels comfortable to you.
There's a wide range of comfortlevels based on safety and kind
of exposure. So you just have todo what's right for you. And if
they don't give you the option,obviously, you're gonna have to

(20:31):
adjust. But at the end of theday, this is your health. This
is your life. And this is whatyou feel comfortable with. If
it's in person, you're reallygoing to take your cues from
them. So I would plan to wearmasks, because it's really it's
the law in most places rightnow. And it does show
consideration for the peoplethat you're around. If they
don't where you are, that's yourcall. If you're going to wear a

(20:52):
mask, if you're going in person.
If you wear makeup, do yourentire face. But do it pretty
minimal because it does tend totake it off into if you end up
having to take your mask off atsome point, you don't want to
have a really dramatic line. Butyou do want your makeup to cover
your entire face, go ahead andput on lipstick or lip gloss,
whatever actually a mattelipstick that doesn't come off
as best because the mask willstick to lip gloss. But be aware

(21:13):
of that you might take it off.
So prepare for that.
When you get there, you're goingto meet someone new. And in
general, across the countryshaking hands is really not
happening. But if the personthat's potentially going to hire
you, puts their hand out toshake your hand, you should
probably take it. There's notreally a graceful way to refuse
someone's handshake. And so thatcan put them off even though

(21:36):
it's totally legit. That couldput someone off as the first
impression. So if they offertheir hand, I would say take it,
but you can then pull out yourhandy dandy hand sanitizer,
offer it to them, use ityourself everybody safe, it
shows consideration and you gotto meet someone new. It's your
call how you approach that, butthat's what I would do. In
general, most of the people I'vebeen around have been doing kind

(21:58):
of the fist bump or elbow bump.
Ultimately you have to do whatyou feel comfortable with. And
also try to maintain a goodfirst impression. So do the best
you can with it. If you can trynot to touch hard objects, like
doorknobs and arms of chairs.
There's not great evidence thatCoronavirus is transmitted that
way although staph infectionscan be, but it's just a good
idea.
In general, if you wear gloves,which some people do, gloves are

(22:22):
meant to be worn for a finiteperiod of time you gloves,
especially like latex or nitrilegloves, you don't put them on in
the morning and then wear themall day and then wear them home.
That's that's not the point ofgloves. So if you're going to
wear gloves, you wear them fromyour car, to the interview, sit
down and interview and take offthe gloves. You do not shake
someone's hand someone's barehand with your gloves. Because

(22:44):
if you do that all of the thingsthe gloves do not absorb what's
outside, which is why we wearthem right. But they pick up
everything. So you're basicallyjust transferring germs from one
place to another if you wear thesame gloves all day long, just
like the people who wear glovesoutside, and then they get in
their car and they touch theirsteering wheel, you've actually
taken all of the germs you'reexposed to and then you've rub
them all over your steeringwheel. So if you're going to

(23:06):
wear gloves, they're meant to befor limited use, you wear them
in you have interact with actionwith people, you clean your
hands again, and you want to putgloves back on you can put them
back on, then you get to yourcar and you take them off before
you sit in your nice clean carand you avoid giving germs to
everyone else.
So you go through yourinterview, you are polite, you
listen, you speak, you answerthe questions. Again, please go

(23:28):
back to interview tips andtricks if you have questions
about how to approach aninterview. But things have
really changed a little bit. Soif you're going to be working in
person, it's a good idea to askto see your workspace you should
see what precautions are beingtaken and how they are working
through the pandemic. Now COVIDis going to end I know it
doesn't feel like it right now.
But I promise at some point itis going to end. But it may not

(23:49):
be the last time we deal withthis in this country and in the
world that besides the potentialfor biological weapons, viruses
in general, everything,bacteria, they they tend to
continue to grow and change overtime. That's just how it works.
They become resistant to ourantibiotics, all of those
things. This isn't a conspiracytheory. It's just biology. At
some point, we may have to dealwith this again. So it's good to

(24:13):
know what kind of precautionsthey've already taken because we
have had almost a year ofdealing with this to see what
what people can come up with. Soit's good to know what they're
doing and what their plan is forgoing forward. So I would
absolutely look and see whatyour workspace will look like.
As you go through the interview.
Again, not the time to ask forabout salary until you've been

(24:34):
hired. But it is okay to findout what they're testing and
quarantining protocol is whattheir plan is for all of this,
and what their teleworking planis, are they going to supply you
with the device? Are they goingto supply you with Internet? You
know what of that? Do you haveto supply yourself? You know, I
will work from home quite a bit.
But I had internet because thatwas important to me. So I had
already budgeted for that Ididn't expect that to be

(24:55):
supplied to me. But if that'snot something you have, and it's
something you need, then youneed to know what the situation
is and what the support is fromthe potential employer, you also
need to know what theexpectation is for managing
accountability. If you are goingto telework, you know, do you
have to be on screen from eighto'clock to five o'clock every
day? Like, what is the plan forthat? How are they going to
maintain accountability? Is itgoing to be based on your

(25:16):
productivity? Is it going to bebased on someone actually being
able to look at your face? Is ita phone tether, like, what's the
deal and what they can expectfrom you. And then if it's a
consideration for you, you needto know what the expectation is
for childcare. There are someindustries that say, if you are
working, you cannot be a primarychild caregiver, meaning you
can't be the only one home withyour kids, if you're supposed to

(25:37):
be on the clock. Well,obviously, that's not reasonable
for a lot of people. So you needto know if that's their
expectation. Because between thelimitations of childcare during
COVID, and just the expense,everything about this, you need
to know what that is if thisapplies to you. So those are
totally reasonable questions toask at that point, because
obviously, you don't want tomove forward if there are
parameters around this job thatare not tenable to you. But keep

(25:59):
in mind, it's not a discussionor negotiation at that point,
you're just asking questions,and then making notes, don't
react, don't look upset, don'tfight back. At that point. Now,
if they decide to hire you, thenyou can negotiate for some of
those things. But in theinterview, that's not the time
to do that you haven't beenhired yet. And so if you're

(26:21):
gonna fight back already, theymay just decide to look at
somewhere else. So don't don'treact, just take notes, and then
step back and see what'sacceptable to you and what you
can deal with. And then if theycome back to you with an offer,
then you can say, okay, aboutthis thing. These are, these are
my proposals, this is what Iwould like, and it gives you
some bargaining tools.

(26:42):
Now, if you can't find a job,which a lot of people are
dealing with right now, the goodnews is, there's going to be so
many people that have gapsduring this time that it's not
going to look as dramatic or asnotable as it did this time last
year. I mean, this time lastyear, if you had a seven month
gap in your employment, that's apretty big red flag. COVID has

(27:04):
done that to a lot ofindustries. So I think a lot of
employers are going to be alittle bit more understanding
about it. That being said, thereare ways to fill some of those
gaps. And one way is throughprojects and freelance work. And
a lot of companies that didn'tnecessarily have freelance
opportunities before have had totransition to that, during
COVID. You know, a lot of smallbusinesses have not been able to

(27:27):
function during their duringCOVID, according to their normal
operations, or their theirprevious business plan. And so
there's a lot more opportunitiesto get involved in small
projects, freelance work,helping out with things. So take
a look in your industry and seewhat's available out there. If
there are businesses that youknow, reach out to them and see
if there's things you can do,because a lot of them are

(27:47):
struggling as well. And sothey've had to change how they
do their normal operations.
Additionally, we've talked aboutvolunteerism, volunteering, and
putting a lot of time into that.
And really moving forwardlearning some skills and
contributing is huge. And thatwould be a great way, sometimes
you can actually turn them intojobs, there are volunteering
opportunities that eventuallycan, you can rise up enough in

(28:07):
the organization that it canturn into a paid position. But
even if it doesn't, it's stillif you have some substantial
projects to put on your resume,that still shows that you are
trying to move forward eventhough you know the pandemic has
put a pretty big wrench ineverybody's works. And you could
just try something new, you cando something completely
different. If you've beenthinking about trying to get

(28:28):
into a different industry or adifferent career field, this is
a great time to look and seewhat's available. And you can
take a course work toward acertification either where you
are now or what you want to worktoward. There's a lot of
opportunities to use this timewisely if you choose to do that.
So at the end of the day, thissituation is not what I would
call ideal. That's anunderstatement. It's it's not

(28:52):
ideal. But we can use this timein better ways we can use it to
be better. There's so manythings that we can do. We can
focus on our education, we cantake classes, we can look back
at things. I mean, I havetextbooks that I haven't read in
years, that I'm trying to makean effort to go back through and
just make my brain work onthings that I already knew once
and I'd like to know again.

(29:16):
We can connect with family. Imean, you can use these online
platforms like zoom and Skypeand FaceTime and Facebook
Messenger, there's so many waysto communicate, use them to
contact your family and see howthey're doing. You know, it's
not ideal. But you can do that.
And it's something we cancontinue doing. I mean, I've
lived apart from my family forme since I was 18. And we just
started doing zoom calls andit's awesome. And I'm like, why

(29:38):
did I never do that before wehad we had the opportunity.
We've had the technology to dothis for years and it didn't
even occur to us to do it. Andnow we do it weekly and it's
awesome. And you can connectwith other people. I mean, we
have happy hours. Still havehappy hours about once a month
with some of my friends and wejust sit and chat and it might
be fun. 30 minutes, and it mightbe two hours. But it's an

(30:00):
opportunity for people to ventand say what they want and just
to reconnect with people. Andthis is we can also go forward
with that, check on people thatneed you check on people you're
concerned about, this is anopportunity. And I feel like
COVID has really opened up anunderstanding that this is hard
on people, so we should check onthem. Well, when this goes away,
life is still hard on people,and we should still check on

(30:22):
them. So you can't lose thatconcern for your fellow people.
Just because there's not apandemic going on. So if you
created a habit in your life ofchecking on people that need it,
don't lose that when this goesaway, because they still need
it. There's still people outthere that can really use that
Helping Hand once in a while.
And then this is an opportunityto reevaluate our goals. I mean,

(30:46):
if you look at how the world haschanged, so massively over the
last nine months, it really putsthings in perspective are the
things that we thoughtimportant, still really
important? You know, if itcontinued like this? Is this
still what I want to do with mylife? Is this still where I want
to be? There is a lot ofintrospection that can be gained

(31:07):
from having everything about ourlives turned upside down. For so
many people. I mean, so manypeople's lives have changed
massively this year. And eventhe best experiences have been
different.
So use this time, use it tofigure out what you want to do,
who you are, who you want to bethis week, take some time to

(31:27):
think about where you want to bea year from now. It may have
nothing to do with COVID. Or youmight be one of the millions of
people whose life has beenturned upside down by the
pandemic. In either case, whatdo you want to have
accomplished? What do you wantto be doing 365 days from today?
Where do you want to be? And whodo you want to be sitting next

(31:49):
to you. Spend some quality timethinking about how 2020 and a
global pandemic has given youthe opportunity to grow? What
can you get started now to bebetter, stronger and happier
this time next year.
That's been our discussion ofgetting ahead during COVID on
Level the Pursuit. If thediscussion of how to keep moving

(32:11):
forward made sense to you pleasegive it a LIKE, SUBSCRIBE or
share. If not, please drop me anote so I can do better.

Unknown (32:19):
Next week, we're going to talk about how the people in
our lives affect our success.
Whether you're surrounded bypositivity or negative energy,
it's no accident. And it doesimpact how you get ahead. We'll
talk about how to approachfilling our lives with
productive and positiverelationships to make the most
of our time and energy. Don'tforget to think about where you
want to be when we get throughthis viruses hold on our lives.

(32:40):
And head over to www dot levelof pursuit.com to share the
great things you're going toaccomplish. I can't wait to
learn from your thoughts.

LTP (32:50):
Thanks again for joining level the pursuit. Well, we
can't choose where we start. Wecan choose our dreams and how we
pursue them. Remember, successis a team sport and there's room
for all of us to achieve ourgoals. So be a good leader. Be a
good follower and do somethinggreat
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.