It may come as a surprise to you to know that career setbacks are so common. Whether the setback is a failed project, a loss of a job, a promotion that one did not get, or even an industry change, professional setbacks are devastating. Effective individuals know, though, that failures do not mean the end of the career; instead, they are detours, which often lead to more promising options.
The way individuals deal with the challenge of adversity makes the difference between recovery and failure. In this book, you will learn proven strategies of how to overcome professional setbacks and convert them into success stories.
Understanding Career Setbacks: More Common Than You Think
Career setbacks may be in various forms. Others like lay offs or closure of firms are abrupt and dramatic. Others are progressive e.g. watching your industry slowly decline or being overlooked regularly when it comes to promotions. Not all of the setbacks are in your control.
The average person will change jobs 12 times in their career, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of these are not voluntary. Company reorganization, technological changes, and economic recessions are the causes of professional disruptions that affect millions of workers.
The stigma and shame that accompany setbacks are lessened when it is realized that setbacks are a part of the contemporary career. Failure to achieve a career goal does not determine your worth or skills and you are not alone.
The Psychology of Career Setbacks
Work failures have colossal psychological effects. In the meantime, you may feel threatened with regard to identity, self-esteem, and safety in the future. Management of these reactions starts with understanding of them.
The Grief Process
Grieving process is usually occasioned by career setbacks. You can experience depressive stages, bargaining, anger, denial, and lastly acceptance. It is emotional for sure. Resistance to these emotions or trying to get over them in order to accept them often has the effect of prolonging the healing process.
Allow yourself to be afraid, angry or disappointed. Such are the right responses to actual loss. But do not get bogged down in any particular stage. Time-limit yourself to how you are going to deal with these feelings and get on with life.
Identity Crisis
Career and identity have a close relationship to many people. When your work life is disrupted it can shake your sense of self. The identity crisis is especially severe when it comes to individuals who are highly passionate about their job.
Always remember you are not what you do or your present situation. Your skills, personal relationships, experiences, and personal qualities do not change in any way irrespective of your work status. This is the time to reconnect to some of the things that work may have covered up.
Immediate Steps After a Career Setback
The first month is do or die after a job loss. What you do during this period will go a long way in determining how soon you will heal and the eventual outcome.
Take Care of Your Mental Health
When career setbacks happen, it is demoralizing. Take care of your mental health and establish a routine, talk to positive people, and consult a professional when you feel you need it. The effect on mind when you failed in career is unexplainable.
Eat well, keep fit and have a regular sleeping pattern. These principles are all the more important when one is under stress. This is a performance improvement in the future.
Assess Your Financial Situation
Look at what money looks like. Find out the length of time that you can continue with your current life by estimating your monthly expenditure and checking on your savings. This kind of evaluation helps to make better decisions and to decrease anxiety.
Unemployment insurance and other forms of assistance programs should be visited when you are out of work. Most individuals are hesitant to use these resources but they exist specifically to be used in a situation like yours. Utilize every support network that is out there.
Avoid Hasty Decisions
Do not rush into radical life choices and grab the first deal that comes by. The urgency brought about by career setbacks tends to make poor decisions. Take time to think of what you will do next in a strategic manner.
But do not get paralytic over analysis. Give yourself an adequate amount of time to decide which is usually 30 to 90 days, although it should be according to your circumstances. This allows you to talk and process choices and feelings without taking forever.
Reframing Your Setback as an Opportunity
The most successful will consider failure in the career as a chance to learn, adapt and ascend. The aim of this reframing is to find real opportunities in difficult situations, and not toxic positivity.
Gaining Clarity on Your Values
The failure incidences in our careers make us reconsider our priorities. Maybe you desire to play a bigger role in your profession or you have discovered that it is more important to have a good balance between work and life than a high pay. Now is the time to figure out what is most important to you and what you believe in.
Think of what you would like to receive besides a salary in your work. What do you like in a work place. What does you look like? These are lessons that can assist you in your future occupation.
Developing New Skills
A forced career break can help you improve your skills or learn new ones. This could mean learning on your own, getting certified, taking online courses, or going to school. The selection of the skills that one is going to take is important in order to make them complementary to your professional objectives and market demands.
Concentrate on the areas which will make you more marketable and portable. These may be leadership skills, technical expertise or such industry knowledge. Record your learning experiences because it is the best way to show prospective employers that you are a self-starter and a person who will grow.
Expanding Your Network
Poor professional networks are usually manifested through career setbacks. This is a chance to build and foster networks both internally and externally to your industry. Even though networking can be awkward during downtimes, majority will be willing to help you provided you go to them in a sincere manner.
Be part of internet forums, industry/professional conferences. No more asking favors, concentrate on making sincere relations. Add value to others as much as you can even when you are in between opportunities.
Building Resilience for Future Challenges
You can learn to be resilient, you are not born with it. With resilience, it is easier to bounce back after the disappointments and get ready to face new challenges.
Developing Multiple Income Streams
Among the best things to do to save yourself against career setbacks is to diversify your income sources. This can be side activities, consulting, freelancing or passive investments. Having several sources of income is a source of professional and financial security.
Take it slow gradual. A little side income can provide a financial and psychological relief in the times of transition. This is to offer alternatives and protection and not necessarily to replace your main source of income immediately.
Maintaining Industry Connections
A professional network is your best career protection against career setbacks. Active members of the network tend to get opportunities more quickly, and bounce back more quickly after being hit by setbacks. Invest in relationships not when you need them.
Keep up your online professional profile, attend industry events and keep in contact with former workmates. Such relationships may offer you opportunities, suggestions and support in your career.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation
The skills that you have previously used successfully may not suffice in the future since industries evolve rapidly. Formulate a career strategy where lifelong learning will be involved. Remain on top of technology, industry trends and best practice.
Take webinars, trade journals and professional development opportunities. By investing in yourself, employers would value you more and be in a better situation to deal with changes in the industry.
Creating Your Comeback Strategy
One should be consistent and plan in order to make a successful comeback. Your strategy must consider short term and long term needs and objectives.
Setting Realistic Goals
Divide the recovery process into small steps and goals should be specific and measurable. This can be in form of a portfolio of freelance job, a certification program, or making a number of applications in a week. The small, day to day actions add up.
Make sure you have specific and time bound goals. Create a goal like, apply to 10 relevant positions a week in the next month rather than get a new job. The plan provides measurable improvement and an action plan.
Leveraging Your Experience
The fact that you have failed in your career does not mean that you have lost your former accomplishments and experiences. Enumerate the good experiences and the transferable skills that you have gained in your career. These assets are valuable even though you might be in a bad situation.
Enumerate the skills, achievements and experiences. This exercise will increase your confidence during the job search and it will make you articulate your worth to potential employers.
Exploring New Opportunities
Failure in your career will open doors that you never thought would be open. This may involve trying out new careers, changing the field or even starting your own business. Rather than be afraid of such things, be open to the possibilities of such things.
Study new jobs, new companies and growing industries in your locality. The career setbacks sometimes bring us to opportunities that really suit us better than the previous ones.
The Role of Passion in Career Recovery
As long as you are able to strategically direct your passion, then it can serve as a potent tool to recover your career. When developing a career around your passion, the same amount of preparation and business savvy that is outlined in passion-based career development is needed.
Assessing Market Demand
Consider the compatibility of passion and market opportunities in case your setback is a shrinking industry. Passion projects that seem not viable may at some point become viable when moving between careers.
Conduct a market research into the need of your area of interest. Would consumers like to buy goods or services that are related to your interests? Have you got new business or new opportunities?
Developing Multiple Revenue Streams
Careers of passion can sometimes be benefited by a number of sources of income. Some examples of this are teaching, consulting, product development and service provision. When you are establishing your name in a new field, there are various streams which give you financial security.
In order to measure the demand in the market, begin with small experiments. Produce a simple product, conduct a workshop or sell your services to your friends and families. Such tests will enable you to understand what works before you do significant investments.
Learning from Successful Comebacks
Major failures in careers have been experienced by most achievers. Their experiences give you informative and inspirational information to your healing process.
Common Patterns in Successful Recoveries
The attributes of effective rebounds are the duration of processing the emotional state, the development of new skills, network creation, and the ability to survive in difficult moments. These trends give you a road map on recovery.
In most successful recoveries, reinvention is also involved. It does not imply changing the career completely but involves changing your approach, areas of focus and skills to the demands of the market and your personal growth.
The Importance of Persistence
It is not easy to get a career back in a day. Most of the effective comebacks take months and even years of hard work. People who succeed in the recovery are differentiated with those who fail in the recovery as they are able to endure rejection and disappointment.
Have realistic expectations of the time it will take to heal. The unrealistic expectations may lead to the feeling of discouragement and the forced give-up even despite the importance of staying motivated.
Your Path to a Stronger Career
It hurts when you experience career setbacks but they are short-lived. The right attitude, strategies and support systems will enable you to overcome any setback in your career and emerge stronger and more resilient in career.
You should be strategic in dealing with your setback as opposed to being reactive. Look after your psyche, be objective about the situation and map out the path ahead. Keep in mind that a lot of successful people have been forced to face the same problems.
Your career failure might have made you feel like pursuing opportunities that you would not have considered. Keep developing what you are currently doing and what you are good at but keep being open to new opportunities.
Do a little thing to-day to aid your recovery. All that you do, even updating your resume, calling an old acquaintance, reading about new opportunities all adds up to the momentum of your comeback.
