9 Ways to Grow your Career During the Pandemic and Beyond

The pandemic has significantly affected companies and individual career growth. From holds on promotions to difficulties changing jobs, layoffs, and even a loss of opportunities due to remote working setups. However, you can keep learning and growing in your career despite possible setbacks from the pandemic.

You may have planned to move to a new job and move up the career ladder or get a raise or promotion at your current company. Even in the current environment, you should continue to focus on professional development. You’ll then be ready to jump on that promotion or new job when it’s realistic to do so.

Even if you find yourself suddenly unemployed, don’t just give up on your career for now. There are many things you can do to increase your skills and experience, making you a top candidate when a great job opportunity arises.

In fact, thanks to the free time gained from the loss of commutes and some social activities, now is the perfect time to grow professionally and increase your work experience!

To help you with this growth, we offer nine ways to grow your career during the pandemic and beyond so that you can continue to develop professionally despite the upheaval caused by Covid-19.

How the Pandemic Affected Career Growth

Before we discuss ways to grow your career during the pandemic and beyond, it’s crucial to understand how Covid-19 affected career development. 

The economic uncertainty brought about by the pandemic caused many changes to businesses. These changes have also affected employees and their career path and growth, often not for the best. 

Some of the negative effects on careers and growth that have arisen due to the pandemic include:

• Layoffs

• Pay raise freezes

• Promotion freezes

• Hiring freezes - resulting in high levels of competition for available vacancies 

In addition, a move to remote working for many could have lessened opportunities. When working at home, collaboration is more difficult. It’s also not as easy to jump on opportunities as it is in-office. 

You may have less workload and variation in projects due to changes in how your clients are purchasing due to the pandemic. 

A good thing to keep in mind is that these issues aren’t just affecting you or your company. Everyone’s career growth has been altered due to the pandemic. 

While some have managed to grow, especially if working in areas that benefited from the pandemic, hiring managers will be aware of why 2020 and 2021 may have been a bit “quieter” for your career or why you have an employment gap on your resume. 

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, career growth is still 100% possible.

9 Top Ways to Grow Your Career During the Pandemic and Beyond

The pandemic has added extra barriers to career growth, and your planned professional path may have been affected. But, that doesn’t mean you cannot develop professionally.  

The following are nine easy ways to grow your career during the pandemic and beyond.

1. Think About How you Want to Grow Professionally

To start on your career growth journey, make a list of how you want to grow your career. These can be short-term and slightly longer-term goals. For example,  you want to take on certain projects that eventually allow you to apply for a higher-level role with at least a 10% pay increase. 

Also, consider where you want to do these things. Do you want to grow with your current employer and move up the ladder there? Or, do you want to go to a new company? You may even be considering starting your own company or “side hustle.”

Under each career goal, list what you need to do to achieve that goal, along with methods for doing so and timelines.

Lastly, consider how the pandemic may have changed your industry. With those changes, do you need to adjust your skills at all?

Job Changes

If looking for new employment, it’s the perfect time to think about what you would have liked from your old (or current) job and try to find a company that matches those wants. Again, make a list of skills and experience you want to gain at a new job. Also, list the experience you need to get that position. If you don't meet all requirements, think about how you can fill gaps. 

It could also be the perfect opportunity to change paths if you weren’t following your passions in your old position. 

If looking for new employment, also be sure to update and optimize your  resume to highlight these skills and experience, and write a customized and stand out cover letter.

2. Find Out How Much You Can Grow in Your Current Position

If currently employed, an easy way to grow your career during the pandemic is to get more out of your current job.  Think about what you can do in your company to help with professional development. Then talk to your manager about your career goals and if there is anything more you can do in the company to help meet these.

While a promotion or even pay raise may be off the table for now, there will likely be extra tasks and projects you can take on to boost your resume. In fact, your manager will probably be happy to give you additional responsibilities.

If you would consider a longer term future at the company, discuss this too. Ask how you can move forward and if the type of role you would like could be available in the time frame you’d like. If not, then add looking for a new job on to your goals list. Additionally, think about how to prepare to get the position you want. 

Also, always be proactive in taking on new responsibilities. Volunteer to help with tasks that arise that will aid professional development. Or, if you overhear someone else working on a project you’d like to work on, ask how you can get involved or if they can include you next time.

If employed, kickstart your career growth by asking your employer for more responsibility.

3. Take Courses

Taking courses is a great way to grow your career during the pandemic. There are lots of options out there to help teach you almost any skill. A lot of classes online are even free or available at a minimal cost. 

If possible, try to take courses that will give you a certification or help you prepare for an independent test. 

If you learn better in class, see if anyone in your area has gone back to teaching in-person courses for your desired subjects. Or, add this to your list for later in this year or next. 

Free webinars are an awesome learning resource too. 

4. Build a Network

A strong network can do wonders for career growth. Those in your network can recommend courses, open positions, and other opportunities. You may also find people that want to work on projects together or get together to discuss trends and news in your industry. 

Due to the restriction on in-person social events during the pandemic, meeting people and growing your network has become difficult. But there are still lots of digital networking events you can attend. Plus, make use of tools like LinkedIn to expand your network. 

If you haven’t already, try to attend some online events and add new connections to your network. Then, think about how you could use these individuals to help grow your career. 

For example, one of these connections could become a mentor (discussed next.) Or, you could meet up to work remotely together (if restrictions allow) so that you can bounce ideas off of each other and ask questions, even if working at different companies.

5. Get a Mentor

Learning from someone more experienced than you in the industry, that holds a position you’d love to have is an optimal way to grow your career. There are many ways to find mentors, from asking someone in your network to connecting with people on mentoring websites. 

Along with gaining expertise from them and learning how to do your job better, they may be able to connect you with your next job opportunity. 

If you’re more experienced, you could consider becoming a mentor instead. Teaching others is a great way to grow, both personally and professionally. 

Building a network and getting a mentor can increase your professional development drastically.

6. Join a Professional Organization

Finding and joining an organization dedicated to your profession can aid a lot with career growth. These can be local, national, or even international organizations.

Being a member of a professional organization can give you access to webinars, networking events (most of these will be remote, but many will go back to in-person eventually), and discussion forums. It’s a great way to connect, learn, and grow with like-minded individuals and those in a position you’d like to hold.

Taking part in a professional organization can also help with previously mentioned points, like getting a mentor and building your network.

7. Factor Professional Development into Your Free Time

No matter what your field, you’ll find a range of books, articles, podcasts, and videos to learn more about your profession. Consuming these resources is another effective way to grow your career during the pandemic. 

Adding some interesting and career-specific entertainment sources to your life can help career growth greatly! You can also consume this content whenever. Whether that's at home, during a commute, or at any other convenient time. 

These resources could even highlight some new areas that you need to get skills and experience in.

Use free time to grow your career too; listen to industry podcasts, read professional articles, and the like.

8. Set Up a “Side Hustle”

The free time you’ve likely gained during the pandemic can be put to good use by setting up a side career. Or, if unemployed at the moment, you can focus on this while searching for a new job.

If you have a decent level of skills, setting up a small business or freelancing outside of work hours brings many benefits. 

Doing this also allows future employers to see you take initiative and can get work done unsupervised. You can also advance your skills in certain areas, work on different projects, and generally get more experience, making you a more desirable candidate when looking for a new role. 

Of course, there’s also the added monetary compensation. 

Just be sure that any extra work complies with your employment contract, and always highlight to potential employers that this work will not get in the way or take precedence over your full-time work for them.

9. Volunteer

You may also be able to find volunteer positions that help you grow your career. Many charitable organizations, especially smaller local ones, search for volunteers to help with professional tasks like marketing, design, and administration.

The pandemic has hit charities hard too, so there will probably be even more organizations looking for volunteer help with business-related projects. 

If you don’t feel ready to set up your own small business or freelance, this is a good alternative. Or, if you have a charity you support, you can help them succeed while also growing your career.

In Conclusion

Despite the effects of the pandemic on your career, you can still use this time to grow professionally, increasing skills, qualifications, and experience.

There are many ways to do so - the nine ways to grow your career during the pandemic and beyond discussed here being just some of them. What’s great is that most of these methods can be done remotely and will allow you to learn and connect with like-minded individuals, ultimately helping you grow professionally and personally.