06 Apr Could Covid-19 & Corona virus affect your choice of career?

What early childhood experiences shaped the career choices of your future?

I am very lucky to have a direct line to common sense information in the midst of this Corona crisis. My sister is an Epidemiologist. She lectures at LSHTM (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and has literally written a text book on the subject.

She takes the multitude of reports, scientific and international announcements and turns them into ‘people-speak’ for the rest of our family and friends – wading through the details, pointing us as additional resources, shunting us away from ‘fake news’.

I have always been proud of her accomplishments & commitment to science, but never more so than at this moment.

As a part of her regular updates on the lockdown, her early warnings to the rest of us not yet in the midst of crisis, and her family’s personal journey in dealing with the quarantine situation, she recently posted something that I thought would benefit many of my younger readers – and maybe some more mature ones too!

What shapes our futures?

With her permission, I am posting her comment:

This morning I woke-up thinking about the things that influenced me when I was deciding my future career. The two main issues of the time were

1. the hole in the ozone layer leading to melting ice-caps and Global Warming and
2. the AIDS epidemic of immuno-suppression, eventually identified as being caused by a previously unknown virus – HIV.

I decided to study Biology and ended-up becoming an epidemiologist.

32 years later and the same themes are back in the limelight and more critical than ever. Now they are called

1. Climate Change and
2. Covid pandemic.

Corona as a career indicator

My sister was making her course choices during these pivotal moments in time.

In the early days of AIDS – as now – there were more theories and rumours than fact and science. She was just entering high school – and the day-to-day news cycle made her want to make her difference.

I wonder how many young students and young adults caught in today’s 24/7 news cycle are trying on their own ‘problem mindset’ and selecting the problems they seek to solve?

What problem are you seeking to solve?

As you go through this crisis, how is it solidifying or challenging your course and career choices?

What might you choose to learn in the coming weeks and months that you had not considered a month ago?

Given the speed with which companies and countries re-invented themselves and their workflow, what do you now think is possible that seemed impossible a few months ago?

Is there a new future for the Future of Work?

What problem are you now seeking to solve?