Professional self-fulfilment during the war: advice for women from VONA Hub career advisers
The war has changed the labour market, and women feel it perhaps most acutely. Some have lost their homes and are starting over in a new city. Some have not worked for years and do not know how to return to social life and work now that they need to provide for themselves and support their families. Some want to change profession but are afraid. The career advisers of the VONA Hubs hear these stories every day. Here is what women most often come with and how the specialists help them.
At the VONA Hubs, visitors receive career counselling and psychological support, get help mastering new professions and are provided with starter kits to begin working. Together with career advisers, women write CVs, prepare for job interviews and apply for grant funding for their own businesses.
“It is especially hard now for women who have been displaced. Vacancies in a new region often do not match their previous experience and expectations. That is why women may go for years without finding a job in their field, simply because there are no such offers on the local labour market. At the same time, we often work with a loss of professional confidence, when after a long break visitors to our hubs do not know how to return to their profession and present themselves to an employer,” explains Tetiana Hliuk, career adviser at the VONA Hub in Chernihiv, adding that the number of requests for remote work, retraining, finding new sources of income and starting one’s own business has grown significantly.
The most common requests at VONA Hubs, regardless of region:
Remote work for mothers. In many communities, schools and kindergartens operate online or in a blended format, so women with young children look for employment they can combine with caring for them.
Changing profession and studying. This request most often comes from internally displaced women who have to start their professional path in a new city.
Employment after 45–50. Women of this age often face employers’ prejudices and self-doubt.
Returning after a break. Maternity leave, relocation or a loved one’s illness can keep women away from work for a long time. After a long break, women feel afraid and unsure how to rebuild their careers.
Own business. VONA Hub visitors need help with shaping an idea, a business plan and a grant application.
“However, women often come not so much for a vacancy as for emotional and psychological support. Our teams of specialists help them understand themselves and feel their inner strength and confidence. Women with disabilities also come to us; for them it is important to find an employer ready to create suitable working conditions. We work with such requests too,” says Tetiana Onyshchenko, career adviser at the VONA Hub in Shostka.
5 tips from career advisers:
Before scrolling through job ads, it is worth honestly answering the question: “What do I want? What are my needs and ambitions?” Work should bring not only money but also moral satisfaction. Otherwise, even a “well-paid” job will quickly drain your energy.
Any experience has value. Organisational and communication skills, responsibility, the ability to make decisions under pressure – all of this can be carried over into a new profession. Make a list of what you can already do. It may turn out to be longer than it seems.
You may not regain full confidence right away. But it is worth starting small: update your CV, look through the available vacancies, sign up for a course or a consultation. You don’t have to change everything at once. It is enough to identify which step you can manage right now.
Today, work can be offline or remote, employed or self-employed, in your previous field or in a new one. If there are no vacancies in your speciality in your city, it does not mean there is no place for you on the labour market. Perhaps it is worth looking for something new or considering a different work format.
A hobby you have been putting off for years can become a profession, and an unrealised idea can become the basis for your own business. Allow yourself to think not only about what you “have to” do, but also about what you really want.
Changing profession, returning to work after a break or starting your own business is not easy. But you don’t have to do it alone. At the VONA Hubs, women are helped to go through this path step by step: from the first consultation to a new job.
The VONA career and business hub project is implemented by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, with financial support from the governments of Denmark and Sweden in cooperation with the Rokada Charitable Foundation.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the leading UN agency focusing on gender equality, reproductive health and youth capacity building. Together with partners, UNFPA works in 150 countries and territories worldwide, and in Ukraine since 1997.
More information about UNFPA and its work in Ukraine: https://ukraine.unfpa.org/en
