Am I ruining my chance of career and personal growth?

ChristineTran·Dec 29, 2020

Posted in:Advice Job Hunting Career Growth Parenting

I'm in a bind.A few months ago when I decided to look for work again, I searched front end developer roles. Unfortunately, I realized I'm not up to speed skills wise. I'm unable to sneak in any practice or work on small projects due to my son. So, I've decided to look for something more manageable in terms of time and workload so I can care for him. Looking for data entry roles or something similar would be the best option as of now. Would I be risking myself for future developer jobs in the sense that I'm "on a break"? I've only had about a year's worth of front end developer experience when I found out I was pregnant and the job I had ended since it was contract base.I have experience in data entry, front end development, some ux/ui, graphic design to name a few. I was in marketing for some time too. I feel as though employers would see my mixed skills and won't be confident in that I'm not expert enough.Thank you

Judith·Jan 04, 2021

A lot of people, especially women with childcare responsibilities, will have to take a break. I think "the pandemic + childcare" will be a fine reason for you not to take a more challenging job.That said, if you don't need the money, career developmentwise, it's probably better to spend your time getting up to speed for the roles you really want. But I expect jobs in the post-pandemic future will treat interim jobs during the pandemic like we treated jobs during the dot com bust "well yeah, it was a weird time, and lots of people were without jobs, or took jobs well below their skill level."

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