WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER: 3 More Career-Enhancing Activities to Do during the Lockdown

If you have followed any of the advice of our last post ( “STOP MOANING: Three Career-Enhancing Activities to Do during the COVID-19 Lockdown”), you might be already too busy to read this post. But if none of the activities I suggested you last time seems appealing to you, I list here three more!

1. Do online volunteering

All things evolve eventually, including volunteering. More and more charities welcome virtual volunteers for all kinds of work. The tasks are so numerous and diverse, that it’s impossible not to find anything for your tastes and skill set. And most importantly, you are enriching your CV while you are helping a charity in this time of crisis. Here are some worthwhile projects to check out:

• UN Volunteers: An online volunteering platform which works under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). To start, you need to set up an account and select one of the well-categorised tasks that are on offer. To be considered, you need to send a short, informal online application and you will soon be notified by the respective charity about the result of it. Upon completion of the task, you will receive a certificate by the United Nations.
• Smithsonian Transcription Center: Smisthonian is a crowdsource platform whose purpose is to transfer handwritten and print material into the digital world, to be accessible by anyone at any time. As a virtual volunteer, you will transcribe historic documents and collection records. There is a plethora of projects on Smithsonian, so it’s worth to check it out.
• Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM): This charity is involved with the issue of undocumented migrants through a big number of different activities and is always in search of online volunteers. To be exact, the charity relies on virtual volunteers for translations, news writing, video/animation, design, photography and research.
• European Network Against Racism (ENAR): This is a pan-European anti-racist network. In fact, this charity only accepts volunteering work from home!

Online volunteering will not just provide you with the opportunity to make a difference in this world; it will also provide you with the chance to develop professional skills and add some professional experience to your CV!

2. Write an article

One sector that didn’t stop during the pandemic is the press. It can’t be, you certainly have an opinion about what is going on around us! So, what about writing publicly about it? A great topic that you can write about is the political aspect of COVID-19; for example, you can examine its implications on the domestic politics of your country and submit your article to a medium with an international audience. Here are some great media to consider:

• JStor Daily: Yes, the famous scholarly platform runs a blog to which scholars from all around the world can contribute and get paid. All you have to do is mail your idea to the editors and, if they find it a good fit for the platform, they will let you know. Check out their submission guidelines here.
• National Review: A British conservative medium which also pays for contributions. Click here for submissions.
• Washington Monthly: This is an independent medium based in Washington, DC and its editorial team are interested in politics, government, culture and the media. To learn more about how to submit, click here.
• The New York Times: The New York Times is one of the most known media in the world. Their editorial team accept submissions in various formats. For details, click here.

If you are a new scholar, writing an article for the international press and seeing it published will boost your self-confidence. Besides, you may also be financially rewarded, which is also a great motive, isn’t it?

3. Plan for the next day

Unlike what conspiracy theorists want you to believe, this is not the end of the world; there is a next day, but it is uncertain how exactly it will look. One way or another, the world won’t be the same after the COVID-19 adventure. A global financial recession is already in sight and some analysts claim that it will be deeper than the 1929 one.

Have you asked yourself about how prepared you are for this yet? If not, it’s time to start examining scenarios and making plans, especially if you have a family to feed or if you are just graduating (you are just as vulnerable in both cases).

If you run an NGO, it is a good idea to start collecting business intelligence about your private stakeholders. Why is this useful? Because if the performance of their stocks deteriorates with no signs of improvement or they have begun to send their people home, their support to your organisation is unlikely to stay high on their priority lists… Consequently, you will need to search for new stakeholders or run more fundraising campaigns later on to cover the loss.

On the other hand, if you are a graduate with a very specific career plan in your mind, you will need at least one alternative plan. Back in 2009, when the debt crisis occurred in Greece, I was in your place, so here I’m writing from personal experience. You’ll need to think of paid alternatives that you are not necessarily in our field, but can offer you the opportunity to develop professional skills and -most importantly- bring bread to your table.

There are two lessons I have learned from crises: first, being prepared and second, always have at least two alternative plans!

So, that’s all about COVID-19. I hope that the last two posts helped you find a productive activity to do, or at least they provided you with some insights. To end with, I would like to tell you that humanity will finally overcome this crisis just as we have done with so many other ones. We are all in this together! #stayhome #staysafe