53% Of Professionals Say Their Career Progression Has Been Negatively Impacted Due To WFH

Is the Covid-19 pandemic messing up your career plans? On Blind, an anonymous professional network, with 3.6M verified users, 53% of professionals claim it is.

The platform ran a survey from 9/14- 9/17 and had 1,625 responses. The survey asked the following questions:

1. Have you been able to network internally since WFH began?
2. Have you been able to network outside of your company since WFH began?
3. Has your career progression been negatively impacted since WFH began?

Key Learnings: 

• 74% of surveyed professionals state that they have not been able to network internally since work from home began
  • 82% of Apple professionals say they have not been able to network internally since WFH
• 89% of Adobe professionals say they have not been able to network internally since WFH
• 92% of Uber professionals say they have not been able to network internally since WFH
• 75% of surveyed professionals state that they have not been able to network outside of their company since work from home began
  • 81% of Amazon professionals say they have not been able to network outside of their company since WFH
• 89% of LinkedIn professionals say they have not been able to network outside of their company since WFH
• 81% of Google professionals say they have not been able to network outside of their company since WFH
• 53% of surveyed professionals state that their career progression has been negatively impacted since WFH began
  • Professionals at Google (69%), Intuit (77%) and VMware (70%)  believe their career progression has been negatively impacted the most 

You can see the report highlighting the overall responses here.

A user at Hyundai Capital America asked the platform “How do you go about networking professionally these days? Prior to covid I had opportunities to show up and exchange info at local conferences and chapter meetings. Recruiters also seemed more reachable and proactive at the time than these days where I’m sure it’s a buyer’s market. Any particular strategy you have to maintain and expand your professional network, especially at times like this?” 

A user at Facebook asked the platform, “Will being remote be a viable career choice post-COVID? Seems a lot of companies are allowing it, including FB, but curious on its impact on growth.”

Dorie Clark, a strategy consultant and frequent contributor to the HarvardBusiness Review, gives professionals the following advice: “In the new workplace reality, individual professionals almost have to take a detective-like approach, investigating and vetting opportunities. That may not be hard in smaller companies, but in large global enterprises, information becomes key.”

Even in a pre-COVID world, professionals who want to accelerate learning about new subjects, strengthen career prospects or meet social goals, “networking is at the heart of finding opportunities and exploring them,” according to Miranda Kalinowski, head of global recruiting for Facebook. Fortunately, while team meetings and industry conventions have moved online, the new normal has opened as many doors as it has closed.

The pandemic has leveled the playing field in some ways, people aren’t bound by location, personal obligations or financial circumstance that has prevented them from being able to attend conferences or join after-work events.

So while these survey results indicate that professionals are far from optimistic regarding networking and career growth opportunities, there is still hope. Networking from home can even offer high quality interactions because there is more intentionality when reaching out to someone.