Eunice Asante made the transition from working for a UK charity to establishing her own freelance career coaching business after being made redundant while pregnant during the pandemic.
Together with her husband, she went on to launch the career platform The Workers Journal which features weekly published content designed to help professionals raise their career potential.
In the first in a series of bi-monthly posts on AKADi Magazine’s blog, Eunice shares some of her insights from her experiences as a careers coach.
After years of working within children’s services and education for a large national charity and managing a flagship project that I started from the ground up, I was made redundant. That was during the height of the pandemic in 2020, when I was six months’ pregnant. It was crushing. But once I got over the shock and the fear of losing my job. I realised that life gave me an opportunity to change lanes.
Seeking fulfillment
Looking back over an almost 20-year career working for large national charities, local government departments, big corporations, start-ups, and becoming an entrepreneur, I always felt like something was missing.
I knew that I wanted to be of service in a way that my job wasn’t fulfilling, but I never really understood how I could do that.
I would often find ways to help people progress within their careers. And when candidates interviewed for positions on my projects but were unsuccessful, I would try to offer support to help them understand the interviewing process.
When it was my turn to secure alternative employment after my redundancy, I had to start taking on my own professional advice.
What every marathon runner needs to succeed
From my experience of losing my job, I realised that career journeys are like a marathon and not a sprint that requires resilience. If you are going to make it to the finishing line, it means continuing when you feel like giving up, reflecting on your accomplishments and feeling proud of those successes.
But if you’ve ever run a marathon, you’ll know one of the hardest things to do is plan for your success. You need to learn how to stay focused on the plan and be open to change at any moment. ,
My approach
The break from work gave me the space to do the same – reflect and plan my success. I started by brainstorming ideas with my husband and realised that it felt good to give people the time and feedback they needed to communicate their challenges and plan their career success.
So, after having my baby boy, I freelanced as a career coach and started coaching professionals to successfully navigate job hunting, interviewing, negotiating a better pay package, and career planning and progression. And I’ve not looked back since.
The Workers Journal
My husband and I decided to take it further and launch The Workers Journal. We publish weekly content that aims to provide professional workers with the kind of content I wish I had access to through the various stages of my career.
In this series I will help you by giving you the tools needed to strategically think about your careers so you can make better career decisions. I will share information and resources, such as our LinkedIn optimisation guide which shows users how to attract recruiters to their LinkedIn page.
I highlight the mistakes I’ve made and lessons I’ve learnt to help jobseekers to achieve their career goals.
I will share insights I wish I had known in my 20s, and will kick off the next post with a ‘how-to’ on searching for jobs.
Feel free to ask questions on how I can help you deal with your career queries. and let me know if there are specific career-related topics you want to read more about in the comments below.
Your Career Coach
Eunice
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