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Defining “What You Do” when you need to start over
“I don’t know who I am anymore now that I don’t have a job”, a friend confided to me over the phone, “I spent so many years working for this company and now, it’s all over.”
“Honey, you didn’t die. Your job just ended. You’re going to have lots of different roles, but there’s only one you”, I assured them. But it’s hard to hear. It’s even harder to digest, that everything you put your time and energy has led to this. You will have to start your career all over again, because the industry you worked in is gone.
For many of my friends in tourism and entertainment, this is happening. Normally, if you were laid off from one hotel chain, you could find another. Gone from one ad agency? There’s four more within theater alone. Now, many of us are dealing with the collapse and uncertain future of entire career category.
This leaves us with ourselves. We work on our resumes. Try to network at a distance. Think about where our skill sets can be used in new ways. But first we have to sort our way out of our depression and longing to figure out how to redefine who we are.
“So, what is it that you do?”- I used to get asked all the time. For years it was easy to answer. “I work in sales at Disney” or “I work in marketing at the Met Museum” or “I work in business development for a start-up where…