Meet Afia

Group coaching shows a job seeker how to turn existing skills into a new career direction

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When Afia Chrappah graduated with her master’s degree in social work, she knew she wanted to work in the public school system in her town. “My goal in life was to be a school social worker,” she said. “I really wanted to make an impact on young people and their families.” Now, armed with her required degree, she felt that nothing could stop her from achieving her dream of working with kids in her area — until she learned that her local school district had implemented a hiring freeze and there were no available jobs in her field. 

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Finding help in switching gears

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With the job she’d dreamed of off the table, Afia turned to the internet for her job search. That’s when she discovered the SkillUp Coalition website. She was thrilled to learn that it was more than just a job board, offering everything from quizzes to assess skill sets to help determine career direction to upskilling opportunities, career path options, career training, a job board, and career coaching sessions offered by InsideTrack coaches.

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She immediately registered for a group coaching session titled Use Your Transferable Skills to Launch a New Career. “It was an amazing experience,” she shared, "not only to connect with a community of other job seekers, but also to reflect on ways to use your transferable skills outside your original career plan.”

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Afia knew that her soft skills included active listening and communication. But what she didn’t know — and learned during the course of the coaching session — was that all her social work reporting skills could readily translate to the field of analytics. In social work, Afia had to be able to look at the data and track each child’s progress based on the social workers’ interventions. “That’s a type of reporting and analytics,” she explained. “I never really thought about that being a transferable skill. It was amazing to have the switch in my brain allow me to see myself in a new way… like, ‘Wow, I really do have skills that can be utilized elsewhere.’ “

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“I never really thought about that being a transferable skill. It was amazing to have the switch in my brain allow me to see myself in a new way… like, ‘Wow, I really do have skills that can be utilized elsewhere.’ “ - Afia

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Using coaching to create a new career mindset

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With that, Afia pivoted into project management in the tech industry and worked as a contractor for The Mom Project, helping mothers in underserved populations who had experience or skills that could transfer to the tech workforce — much like she had done. Through her role in The Mom Project, Afia worked with a variety of big-name tech firms, then collaborated with working moms to build a bridge between their skill sets and different types of available tech positions. 

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When she spoke with women who were actively promoting school events or organizing their kids’ sporting teams, she would try to connect those skills to an in-demand job. “Did you know there’s a field called digital marketing?” she’d ask them, knowing the skillsets overlapped. If they were interested, she helped steer them in the right direction. The same happened when she met with moms who had been running their households for years. She’d talk to them about the similarities between household management and project management. “All of those skills translate to sales, marketing and business management. If you add a little bit of technical skillset to that background, moms are the best employees you can ask for.” 

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Same drive, new direction

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Although her social work didn’t pan out as she had planned, Afia stayed true to the things she was passionate about and made a career pivot. The way she sees it, any job where she can support people puts her exactly where she wants to be. “Whether it is on the back-end with data and reporting or working directly with moms to help them figure out how to go from bake sales to a career, I’m there.”

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Since moving in a high-tech direction, Afia has gone on to receive additional technical training, receiving certification in Cisco IT Essentials and Cisco Networking. And while this may or may not be her final career path, she says one thing is certain: “Whatever I do, I know it will be a combination of technical acumen and supporting people, combining my new technical skills with my communication skills. I know how to talk to people and I know how to solve a business problem,” she says proudly. 

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“Whatever I do, I know it will be a combination of technical acumen and supporting people, combining my new technical skills with my communication skills. I know how to talk to people and I know how to solve a business problem." - Afia

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Reflecting on her career path since graduating with her master’s degree in social work, Afia says, “One of the things I’ve learned about myself is that I’m needed. I will never stop learning. I feel there is a lot of need in the world and people who need help. I always thought I was Type A with my career path, but I’ve discovered that I’m a lot more flexible than I gave myself credit for.”

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InsideTrack is a mission-driven nonprofit that fuels equitable social impact by advancing individuals forward to achieve their educational and career goals through the transformative power of coaching. We help people get the education and training they need to reskill, upskill and advance in their careers, creating pathways that lead to quality jobs, family-sustaining wages and meaningful employment.

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