Career coach support for anyone made redundant...

[wheresmymojo]

Hi,

I'm a career coach and I know there are redundancies underway already and likely to be more coming up.

I thought I'd start a thread for anyone out of work who has any questions. I'm not on MN all the time so there may be a bit of a delay sometimes but I will answer all questions.

I do want to limit to people who are unemployed / redundant (I realise I have no way of checking but trust the majority of MNetters not to be CFs)

Things I can cover:

• Job searches
• Switching careers
• Starting up a business
• CVs
• Interviews

Things I can't cover:

• Benefits (I probably don't know anymore than you!)
• Employment law (not my specialty, might give you wrong advice)

Such a generous offer!!

I have recently been made redundant due to covid from a hospitality management position. Love the industry but want to make a move to something 'online'.

I have some experience in social media management and would like to explore this option a little more.
Not committed to anything, but ideally something online based with potential to level up to management (with earning potential of 40k+ in future) and work from home or set up as self employed in the far off future.

Any suggestions on how I go about this? When I've looked lots of places want years of experience which I don't have. Happy to retrain whilst working, and work my way up

Hi @Notanothercherrybakewell

A few questions for you...

• Have you done any training so far?

• Have you researched if there is any free or reduced price training available at the moment?

• Do you know anyone that does that kind of role already?

• Would you be up for building up your skills as a 'side hustle' for free or low cost while working on something else in the meantime?

• Do you use LinkedIn? If so, how much?

I will actually give advice, not just ask questions but this info will help

No specific training, I was responsible for the social media presence for my last company as a sideline within my role so had 'in house' training with marketing team but no qualification based training.
I do hold a msc in business which I'm happy to convert.
When I have researched no where is asking for specific qualifications or training, just experience so I am wondering if it is necessary to enrol in something first?

I don't know anyone in this field, my circle is very much hospitality based which is why we're all home now twiddling our thumbs!

I haven't used LinkedIn as a personal account but know how to work it for the business so setting one up isn't an issue at all.

I have a small pot from the redundancy so could retrain, or at the very least take on a lesser salary or apprenticeship type set up

Thankyou for taking time to help with this

I would say as a first step my advice would be to set yourself up on LinkedIn (this weekend?) and actively seek out a few social media managers that look friendly and approachable.

Also just check they've been active on there lately.

Send them a connection with a friendly message - it doesn't need to be more than a sentence or two about how you've managed the social media for a business before and would love to move into that and ask them if they'd be willing to answer a few questions you have about their role.

Maybe start out with something flattering about their profile that caught your eye (e.g. go to their recent posts and say 'I saw your great post on XYZ...')

I guarantee most, if not all, will come back to you.

Then ask them about what they would recommend to someone in your position in terms of breaking into their industry...is there any training or qualification they'd recommend? If they were you and in your exact position what would they do? Etc.

You'll get the best, realistic and pragmatic advice from people already doing what you want to do. One of them might even be up for having a 30 min video chat with you or something like that...

Would you be up for that?

Of course you can chat to as many as you like as they won't know you've talked to five others already and get lots of the best info...(and then you also have them in your LinkedIn network for the future!)

I'd never really thought of that before but makes sense.
I will set up an account later today and research some people to approach. Should this be people in companies in my city or can this be anywhere?

I'd do a mix of both at this stage...

Might also be worth asking them what they think the worst aspects of their role are so you get a good idea of all sides