Anyone else's career in tatters due to Covid?

[CloudsCanLookLikeSheep]

I feel so frustrated, this was going to be the year I finally moved my career forward after a long period coasting after having kids.

I had interviews in the early part of the year and even an offer which I turned down as I wanted to hold out for something better.

Now, I am furloughed from my current role and not at all sure I will have a job to go back to at all. The opportunities in my field are few and far between. Jobs I'd have sniffed at last year as being not good enough/ exactly what I wanted, I'd now bite your hand off for. But there are none, and it is particularly hard to move up a level in a tough market where employers can take their pick even if any vacancies do become available. Lucky to even get work at the same level.

I'm not even sure what I'll do if I get made redundant - probably end up taking any old shite to get an income and then it's even harder to get back in if and when things do recover as my skills won't be current on my CV.

I'm so disappointed... a few short months ago I was making final stage for dream jobs, now I see a bleak future and the career ladder pulled up away from me.

Is anyone else in a similar boat and what do you plan to do about it?

I’m in a similar position, I was made redundant during my maternity leave in December. Then had some great interviews lined up in March and two job offers which were both pulled upon lockdown.

Now I’m desperate for anything

Yep. I left a boring job early March to go out on my own. Lost all my contracts at the start of April and now there are very few prospects.

I am a bit similar, I planned to look for something more full time now dc3 is getting a bit older, and I think that might be delayed as jobs harder to find / many more people chasing them). I am lucky that I currently have a good if a bit boring part time role, that is fairly safe. I feel for those whose industries/ employers / businesses have been really hit and so I guess I feel for now, for me that out weighs the fed up in my role issue.

I am on the other side as a hiring manager and I have to say the talent I'm seeing is very high due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Candidates who would have been snapped up by fancier, more lucrative employers are keen to come to interview.

I am very sorry to all who have had bad luck in timing. The market is very tough at the moment.

I am a self employed storyteller, there's literally no work out there for me until social distancing is over.
Realistically I'm looking at a year of lost work.
Luckily DH is the main breadwinner and we've cut back in other areas to cover my lost income.
The Self Employment Grant runs out in a couple of months, but I won't be able to work until long after that.

@Teacaketotty

I’m in a similar position, I was made redundant during my maternity leave in December. Then had some great interviews lined up in March and two job offers which were both pulled upon lockdown.

Now I’m desperate for anything

That sounds horribly disappointing having offers pulled.

Yeah - I was going through the final stages to get a huge career boosting role. They even specifically wrote to me to tell me where I had placed. If not for Covid, I would be in that job now.

I found it very tough. Of course it's worse for others. It was still a bitter pill.

Not as bad as many people but I was halfway through negotiating a promotion at work to do a new role that I desperately want to do. After years of juggling young children and not pushing forward like I wanted too, it all felt so good, there would even have been a pay rise to negotiate. But we're a private sector firm and so all promotions and payrises are on hold and the role I was suggesting was a nice extra, not an essential. So I'm sure it's just vanished.

I know I'm lucky to still have a job and I'm counting my blessings that one of the reasons for no promotions and payrises etc is that I work for a good firm that's tightening it's belt now to try and ensure there are no redundancies and we get through this as well as we can. But I can't help feel angry, I guess, that after years of hard work and putting my career in stasis (DH didn't, funnily enough) it's all just gone.

A bit similar here too. Gave in my notice to my 'not challenging but fits around the kids' job at the end of January, with the aim of freelancing and updating skills training to move back into my preferred industry. I had picked up one freelance contract before handing in my notice, which has continued but with a lot less work than planned.
With three kids at home, the training has been put off and I don't have the time to commit to new contracts, even if they were out there. Obviously no furlough as I haven't been self-employed long enough and not eligible for any UC or anything, so just a drop in income we'll have to cope with.
It sucks but DH is in very secure job and our housing and finances are secure, so I know our situation could be a lot worse. It's not knowing when I can follow through with my plans after I already feel like I'd been putting them on hold that's so frustrating.

Yeah I am feeling very despondent about my chances of a career now, having prioritised the kids for the last 10 years. Terrible timing. On the plus side, we are fortunate that DH job is secure.

Yep. Self employed property barrister here. The courts have been closed since march, and my main stream of easy money work has been banned by the government until at least August. I don’t qualify for any of the self employment grants. I can’t get UC because I have savings put aside to pay my tax and vat. Just found out that I’m 4 + 3 weeks preg due to a contraception failure. Put shortly, I am fucked.

@recreation
Shit! Hope things work out for you.

Yep. 2020 was going to be my year of moving away from the tiny “fits around the kids” bits of work I currently do to a job actually in the field I want to work in. I had just started applying for jobs.

Now I’m home schooling instead and all the child care I’d been lining up ready for the summer holidays has disappeared. In theory I could still job hunt, but I’m reading the accounts of people juggling home school and full time WFH with immense horror and sympathy, and frankly it sounds like a recipe for a nervous breakdown atm.

recreational

Yes. I’m waking in the morning with a slow creeping panic. I am freelance but covered by furlough - however my company want to take me off now, although there is no work coming in. So my income will go to zero, at least for a while until it picks up. I’m a single parent so no fallback.

We have a vacancy in our work but have had to put the recruitment on hold as there is no point recruiting without a start date ( non essential office in Scotland so fuck knows when we will ever be allowed back at work!). With the rest of the team at home twiddling their thumbs as work tries up, no point recruiting the missing team member yet.

I’d just started getting enough freelance work to make it worthwhile and would have qualified this year. I’ve now not worked for 3 months so skills are going stale which means longer to qualify as well as building up my work again.

You can't do anything about covid and the job market. What you can do during the months you are furloughed is enhance your CV with work or personal development online courses or volunteering during a crisis.

Things will pick up soon enough and you will want to show what you achieved during these months.

Yes. I'm at the end of a fixed term contract in an industry that might never recover from covid, and there's nothing else out there. So I have to say goodbye to that industry. I have a lot of transferrable skills but the job market is terrible, I'm getting rejected for jobs that would be a 50% pay cut (and I was only making 22k before) and that I could do in my sleep.

Not only that but I'm worried that if I don't get something soonish, we will never have children because surely it isn't responsible for me to have them without any earning potential. My husband's job can pay for us to live but it would be a stretch with more people added to the family.

Thanks for the all - let’s hope things start to bounce back soon

Yep. Was made redundant 10 days ago from a job I loved. Absolutely devastated. Fortunately there’s tons of roles around - I specialise in digital marketing in financial/ fintech sector. Signed up with a recruiter who says he’s not seeing any slowing down in our markets and I’ll be snapped up. But I feel very despondent. I’m the main earner - social distancing all but killed DHs self employed business.

@gorgeousladyofwrestling I’m in a similar position and seeing quite a few digital roles cropping up. Mainly middle management, but they’re out there (North West)!

DH and I both in our 50s. He had just managed to find a job after nearly two years of looking. Now redundant. We are planning for retirement although our "pensions" are significantly reduced - just hoping the markets will bounce back before we have spent our savings.

@glasshalfsomething yep agreed, there’s loads of roles, particularly where I’m at in my career. Lots for my level and lots for me to actually aim for - director level/ head of digital type roles. I’m in London and it’s a pretty healthy market. But. Just got to actually get something 😬

@gorgeousladyofwrestling I’m looking to actually step down the ladder slightly and that’s proving harder. Furlough and lockdown have made me less ambitious for the first time in 20+ years. Let’s hope we both find our dream jobs!

I was made redundant after being on furlough for a couple of months. I'm just not hearing anything back from things I apply for. Each new job I get I compromise more on salary and level to get flexibility, because DH has a full on role, but I have a massive sinking feeling about the level of role I may get now, and the salary.