Hello, and happy Monday!

Today's newsletter is triggered by a personal event that happened on Sunday night, where a family member was brought to the hospital after a case of a panic attack. Thankfully, everything was OK and she's back home now, but the incident made us think...

We all have our own emergency contacts - people that would be the first to be informed if anything happens to us. In most cases, our emergency contacts are our parents or our spouse. People say that you should update your phone with the emergency contacts, so if anything were to happen to you, the first responders can easily find your emergency contacts even if you are unconscious.

At home, some people recommend having a small first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket in case there are any small emergency. Having the numbers for your immediate neighbors and the nearest police station, hospital, and fire station would also be useful. All of these would come in handy if ever there are any emergencies at home.

But what about an emergency plan for your career?

Have you ever thought of having an emergency or back up plan for your career? What if something happen to your company and you're suddenly find yourself out of a job by the end of the day? What if, God forbids, something happens to you and you can't do the job that you are in now due to some disability?

What would happen to you and your career then?

Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of cases of companies laying off their employees, organizations downsizing and people losing their jobs for whatever reasons.

So it becomes all the more important for us to be ready in case the world decides to throw a curveball at us and make everything upside down.

What should be on your emergency career plan?

Your emergency career plan would differ based on your needs and circumstances, but here are just some of the ideas we have to help you get started :

1) An updated resume. We recommend people to update their resume every 3-4 months, or after successfully completing a big project. This will have to keep your resume fresh and new, and ready in case you need to quickly search for a new job.

2) Keeping track of your work files and accomplishments. For some people, you may want to keep a copy of some of the work that you have been completing (spreadsheets, dashboards, etc). These can be useful as a reminder of your accomplishments and may be used as work samples. Depending on your company's policies (if they allow it), you may want to occasionally save any important documents in your personal folder as you go along, so if you need to leave the job within a day's notice, you would have all that you need to move on to the next one.

3) A Plan B. Have an idea about what you may want to explore next. This may be a list of companies you are targeting, or a list of roles and positions you are interested in. You may also want to include a list of people in your network who can help you in case you need any referral or support.

There are other things to consider, but hopefully this short list is a good start for you to get started on your own emergency career plan. After all, we have no idea what the future has in store. We can only prepare ourselves to make it easier to face any potential obstacles.

[New post] Common resume mistakes to avoid.

If you're working on updating your resume, make sure you avoid these common resume mistakes!

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[News!!!] Kejar Kerjaya Masterclass Cohort 1 is open for registration!

We have officially opened the registration for our Kejar Kerjaya Masterclass Cohort 1 in September 2023. More details will be out in a separate email, but you can check out the website and find out more.

Until we see you again next week, as usual, here is our question to you.

What inspires you to wake up and go to work today?

Stay awesome, take care, and happy holiday to the people in Selangor whose companies observe the additional public holiday today :)

Best,

Kejar Kerjaya