The Survival Guide When Work Feels Impossible Right Now
Photo by Denny Ryanto on Unsplash
“Obviously, you don’t need me to tell you these are dark, unsettling, apocalyptic times.”
Oliver Burkeman, author
Reflecting on sixteen years of coaching clients, I can name various waves and trends I’ve observed. For instance, while the current job market feels rocky at best, not too long ago (2022) I was flooded with people asking for assistance in making career pivots as we emerged from the pandemic and jobs were popping up everywhere! Ah, those were the days…
But rather than slide down into doom and gloom, allow me to remind you that I made a significant job pivot in the heart of the 2009 Great Recession, when unemployment hit 10%! Just because things are difficult right now, I am not coaching people to simply put their heads down and tolerate miserable situations with fear and trembling.
However, I am also aware that for most of us, it would be wise to ride things out and wait to see how things unfold in the next several months. These days, I find myself repeatedly taking clients through three different ways to manage their challenging work situation. Here they are!
“Tell Us A Little Bit about Yourself”
I recently had a gratifying breakthrough with a client who was struggling to land a new job. He had quit his previous job because it was utterly soul-killing and the longer the break between jobs went on, the harder it became for him to keep looking because he felt ashamed.
“How will I explain why I haven’t worked in several months?” he groaned to me in an early coaching session. The more we talked, the more it became evident that he quit because he was incredibly unhappy with the professional direction he took after college. He has outstanding technical skills, but also needed to believe in what he was doing. The widgets he was making were just not adding up to anything that kept him motivated and energized.
Through a friend, an informational interview opportunity came up with a non-profit that could utilize his technical skills, but would take him in a very different direction. Should he even consider it? We talked through how to tell a new story, not one of quitting and then floundering in finding new work, but instead one of making an intentional pivot from the private sector to the nonprofit world. The informational interview unexpectedly led to a job interview, and looks promising.
Whether you have lost your job or feel like you can't quit your job right now and make the same kind of pivot my client is making, you CAN start writing your story now of where you have been and where you want to go.
Start by picturing yourself in a job interview with that ever-present first question: “Tell us a little bit about yourself.” Do you know what you would say? Realistically, you won’t have more than 90 seconds to reply to that question in an interview, but I recommend sketching out a fuller story that you can pare down later. I think you might be surprised at what bubbles up for you as you think through these questions. Here are some good prompts to get you started:
What problem or passion keeps showing up, even in different roles or industries?
What experience changed the direction of your career or clarified what you wanted?
When did you realize what you were good at or what energized you?
Why does this type of work matter to you personally?
What impact do you want to have through your work?
What lights you up about what you do?
What do you want the listener to remember about you?
Does this story sound like how you'd actually talk, or like a resume came to life?
What would a friend say is the real reason you do what you do?
I tell all of my clients it is actually optimal to go through this exercise before you start looking for a job, so you can take your time to really reflect and flesh out your narrative. I encourage you to start that process now as a helpful way to cope with any frustrations you currently have with your job (or job search).
Share Your Story
Even if you're staying put for now, building your narrative publicly serves two purposes: it keeps you mentally engaged in your professional growth, and it positions you for when the right opportunity does emerge.
Eighteen months ago an unexpected message showed up in my LinkedIn inbox:
“Would you be interested in a paid opportunity to teach a short course for potential publication on LinkedIn Learning among others? I came across your profile (like, real human, non-bot style) and thought you’d be great at this. Happy to share more.”
I did not know who this person was, and naturally assumed it was just some sort of gimmick to get me to buy something. Nevertheless, I responded and long story short, it ended up being legit. They told me that they liked my posts because they “felt authentic.” Six months later I filmed a course on how to manage GenZ employees that has been taken by over 19,000 people on LinkedIn Learning!
Furthermore, I filmed two more courses for them and two additional training videos for an individual client. None of that would've happened if I had not been someone who posted regularly on LinkedIn. Now before you start coming up with all the reasons you don't want to do that, consider this…
Four years ago I started posting content on LinkedIn - articles that pertained to topics I was dealing with with my clients, podcasts that I found stimulating and challenging, quotes that resonated with me, and an occasional post under 300 words that expressed something I was thinking about. Naturally, my primary motivation was to raise my visibility as a coach. But I also wanted people to get to know me in a genuine way. My best coaching clients are ones with whom I find a personal connection. I am not interested in selling some sort of method or product. I desired to meet each client where they are, find out what they need, and do my best to support them in that journey.
I discovered that this connection takes hold when someone gets a sense of who I am and what I care about. And I got good practice in crafting those messages through some storytelling on LinkedIn. Does that make sense? Trust me, there are plenty of people I see on there every day who sound like hucksters and are extremely unappealing. My hope is to stand out as someone different from that stream of messaging. I definitely encourage you to do the same.
Most likely you are not trying to sell coaching services! Nevertheless, if you are looking for work or a change in your career journey. increasing visibility has helped several of my clients. Frankly, I do not suggest that people look for jobs on LinkedIn. But I do remind them that recruiters are on LinkedIn and if/when they do apply for a job, the first place that most hiring managers will look is on LinkedIn to find out more about the applicant. So it is important to tell the story about yourself that you want told.
If I have been successful in persuading you to at least consider this approach, I suggest you start with this article from FastCompany magazine, “How to build influence on LinkedIn without being cringe.” I also coach people 1:1 in how to leverage LinkedIn for networking and visibility.
“All You Need to Do is the Next Right Thing”
Remember, at the outset of this post, I promised to share three different ways of managing challenges in your work situation. The first two options are more practical, and help you feel a real sense of agency in the midst of a situation where you might feel powerless. This last one is geared more toward your mental and emotional health, assisting you in managing the overwhelm and anxiety that comes from so many things coming at you at the same time.
If you receive my newsletter or these blog posts, you will find that I often mention the work of Oliver Burkeman. He sends out an email twice a month that he describes as “an email on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment.” How great is that?!
One of his recent newsletters walks us through an exercise on maintaining presence and perspective. Rather than try to summarize it here, it is short enough that I recommend that you hit the link and read it yourself. He offers some very practical ways of balancing the negatives with the positives in equal measure so as to not play out worst-case scenarios minute by minute. Again, please take 5 minutes and read the whole post, but this sentence settles my spirit:
“It can be striking to realise that anxiety, whether about the news or anything else, is never about what’s happening now, only about what it might result in later.”
As I have frequently shared with clients, the past is not “real” in that it is purely how we remember it, and the future is not real either because it has not happened yet. The only thing that is real is NOW, and we simply need to walk through it calmly and patiently. Or as Burkeman says (quoting others), “all you need to do is the next right thing.”
Indeed, these are difficult times. But you have more agency than you think—in how you tell your story, how you show up, and how you meet each moment.
If any of this captures your own experience, I specialize in helping professionals navigate career transitions with confidence. Hit the Contact link at the bottom to ask for a complimentary consultation to discuss how career coaching can support your journey toward more fulfilling work.
