A Seed Was Planted 

It was 2019, I was heavily pregnant and being made redundant. Yep, they were letting me go from my job at 6 months pregnant (shocking, I know). After a few days of crying and staring at my redundancy letter over and over again. I made a decision. I decided that this situation would be a defining moment for me. Even though I didn’t know what I would do. I knew that this situation would be pivotal. So I decided to pay attention to my mindset. And instead of feeling sorry for myself. I said a big thank you to the powers that be, for giving me the opportunity to take back control of my career. And although nothing much happened after that. A seed was planted and my mind got to work thinking through my next steps. 

What’s a Pregnant Girl to Do?

I tried out a few things like YouTube, starting an e-commerce store and looking for remote working roles. But none of these felt right. I didn’t want to jump into doing just anything, because I felt afraid. So I kept going back to the drawing board, speaking to my network and reflecting. 

Months later, after I had my baby boy and was fully immersed in #mum-life. My husband Anton, asked me to help him update his CV. Doing this reminded me that I enjoyed helping people focus on their careers. 

When I stopped to think about it, I realised that I had tons of experience doing this. As well as lots of insight into how a person can improve their chances of getting hired. In fact, recruiting and interviewing candidates was often one of the really enjoyable parts of my previous job roles. 

I wished that my corporate roles involved feedback sessions with candidates. So I could fully explain the interviewing process to them and how they can improve their performance. I wanted to help candidates understand how to answer interview questions and what the questions are actually asking. Because there are only a few key things every recruiter or hiring manager needs to hear from a candidate. Regardless of the interview type, for a candidate to be successful at an interview, you need to know what they want to hear from you. Helping candidates improve their interviewing skills to land the job was always something I wanted to do. But there was never enough time in my previous roles for me to do this.

Next Steps

It occurred to me that I really enjoyed helping friends and family members think through their next career move. Or even strategically talk through difficult workplace situations. Helping people through coaching conversations energised me, it’s what has always come naturally to me.  

So I did what any idea seeker in my situation would do. I went turned to the internet to research demand for freelance Job coaches. After soul searching and feeling aligned to this new opportunity. I took the plunge and set myself up as a freelance job coach. There was a lot of work involved but within a few months, I landed my first client. 

The World of Work

Once I started work as a freelance job coach, I found myself constantly speaking to my husband about what I was learning through my new role. I talked about the issues my clients were facing in the corporate world. But also how frustrating it was that there wasn’t a platform where professionals could go to access content, help and inspiration. You know the kind of content every worker wants to access but may be embarrassed to ask colleagues. During those conversations, Anton and I reminisced about all our successes and failures at work (and there have been a few). As we reminisced, we realised a few things. 

The world of work can be a strange and wonderful place. One that takes a lot of navigating to get through without damaging your sense of self. And there are so many stories to tell of great successes and miserable failures. But it’s all part of the journey, these stories and lessons are important and should be shared (sensitively). Because that’s how we all learn. 

Let’s Start a BLOG!

We put our heads together and we realised that combined we have over 30 years of experience in the world of work. This experience spans different industries, sectors and even countries. We have had promotions, redundancies, managed people and teams (some good some ..!!@*!!) and had phases where we loved and hated our jobs. We have also changed careers, gone self-employed, started a business and sold a business. Basically, we have a lot of content to share. And what better place to share this, than on this platform! So the Workers Journal was born. 

Our collective perspective is unique and we hope to create content that will make navigating the world of work easier for so many people. So feel free to reach out to us and ask us anything. Honest, ask us. If we don’t have the answers, we will know people that do. Over the years we’ve built a great professional network of people to help with anything we don’t have answers to. 

It Takes a Community

But beyond sharing information and our experience through our content. We want this platform to be about creating a community of workers. Because community matters, especially when the world of work can feel so isolating or confusing. There’s power and relief in knowing that you are not going through your situation alone. 

I wish I had had access to a platform like this when I was struggling through workplace drama and dilemmas. So take comfort in knowing that this blog is written by workers for workers everywhere.

​Summary

If you hate having to scroll through the internet looking for quality but relevant content, then look no further. We are here for you! We promise to inform, inspire and uplift you while helping you think through your work journey. Our content and resources are here to help you succeed. 

We are a community of like-minded professional workers, here to document the highs and lows of a worker’s journey and what navigating office life is really like.

So stick around, join the community, let us know how we can help you to work better and be better at work. And if you would like to find out more about coaching, head on over to my coaching tab.  

Eunice and Anton

We would love to hear from you. What are your career dreams and the best lessons you’ve learned on your career journey so far?