The Inspiring Way Job Setbacks Can Actually Boost Your Career
There's always a silver lining.
Drazen Zigic | Shutterstock For most members of the workforce, setbacks are part of the journey. The current job market has proven itself to be an especially challenging place, as people send out thousands of resumes, only to not get any response whatsoever.
Losing your job might make you feel like the end of the world is near, and rightfully so. Existing in a place of instability is never easy, but there are silver linings to hold onto when times get tough.
Job setbacks can boost your career by making you reevaluate what’s important.
According to Harvard Business Review, studies have shown that there are positive aspects to all those bumps in the road.
Researchers interviewed 42 junior employees working in a variety of industries and compared the ones who’d been through setbacks to the ones who hadn’t. They found that the people who experienced setbacks had to rethink who they were and where they were going, which led to a realignment of their professional purpose.
Setbacks help people reframe their career paths so those paths become more authentic to who they really are.
Being knocked off your expected trajectory forces you to look at your life in a different way. That newfound perspective can shine a light on what’s important to you, both within the workplace and outside of it.
Instead of plodding along and moving from one step of the corporate ladder to the next, experiencing a setback makes people rethink what they want. In a way, they’re forced to reflect on how their goals and skills may have changed over the years, and see their future with a new outlook.
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Losing your job can be a blow to your self-confidence, but it can also open doors to opportunities you might never have considered.
Those new opportunities have the potential to fulfill you in ways your old job might not have done.
There are multiple examples of job losses that are actually wins. There are tech workers who get laid off and become carpenters. There are teachers who transition to working in an office and never look back.
Sometimes, we need an outside force to knock us off our feet, give us a jolt, and show us what we’re missing and what we really need.
The researchers also found that people who didn’t have job setbacks tended to stay on the same, well-trodden path they were always traveling. They were less likely to embrace change or even see that other possibilities existed.
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Feeling waylaid by a job setback is entirely understandable. Everyone who’s ever lost their job knows that there’s a mourning period where you live in your pajamas, eat cereal for dinner, and feel like a total failure.
Yet our jobs don’t have to be the only things that provide us with a sense of drive, purpose, or passion. In fact, it’s more than OK if your job is just a job, and you find validation and fulfillment through what you do after working hours are over.
Practicing gratitude in the face of loss isn’t easy, and neither is keeping a positive perspective when you’ve lost the ground beneath you. But the end of a job isn’t, actually, the end of the world. Keep your eyes open for avenues you haven’t explored yet, and see what you find.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.