Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many of us were put on Chalat (furlough) or let go from our jobs entirely. Luckily there are a ton of cheap and free resources available to help you continue on your professional development path, and even luckier for you our team at UpStart HR spent time curating the best list of opportunities out there for you to start TODAY
Udemy / Coursera: Coursera.org is a great website that allows you to audit a class taught by a University professor online, or you can pay a small sum to get an official certificate upon completion of the course. They collaborate with over 200 top universities to bring you courses from all different fields such as: computer science, positive psychology, information technology, and more. Udemy.com is a similar structure although anyone can upload content to lead a course, so make sure you read the reviews before signing up! There are plenty of free courses, some can be quite pricey but there are usually deals on the site. Top courses include: Public speaking for any occasion, Microsoft Excel from beginning to advanced, and the Complete Digital Marketing course.
Jolt.io: Let’s hear it for Israeli start-ups! This great company, based in Tel Aviv, provides courses in person at their lab or virtually for anyone looking to gain different skills. Taught by some of the top executives at major companies, courses focus on those similar to what one would find in an MBA program. There is a fee and courses are taught in English and Hebrew.
Podcasts: Podcasts have emerged as a great new medium for thought leaders and successful people to share their secrets and insights, and there are plenty out there on personal and professional development. We recommend “The school of greatness” with Lewis Howes, “The Accidental Creative,” and “CareerCloud”
Linkedin: First, if you do not have a profile on LinkedIn, make one and start building out your network! Once that is done, use your network, and your network’s connections to you. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone for coffee or a call, many people are so understanding of the current situation and are more than willing to help job-seekers, not necessarily with a job but with a connection, and an idea, or a sounding board. Companies have also been posting a lot of great content on Linkedin that will show up in your feed if you follow their accounts.
Read, Read, Read: One benefit of more people working from home is there has been a flood of great content put out online. Check out Forbes.com, Fastcompany.com, Inc.com, Techcrunch.com for some great article about adapting to these new times. In addition, there are books being put out all the time by experts in their field, so head to Amazon.com or your closest Steimetzky for a great read! Check out this list put out by Fastcompany.com of what the top CEOs recommend reading this year!
This list is not exhaustive by any means but should give you some new tools and resources. Just because you may currently be on Chalat or were recently let go of your job does not mean you should stop life entirely, rather use this as a time to figure out what is next and what you need to do to get there, and hopefully these resources help!