Recovering from a career setback can be hard. Most people tend to sink into denial and begin blaming the company or others for their failures. This can be said to be a natural response, but what it does is that it prevents you from self-evaluation and does not stop you from behavior that might have caused the loss of your job or promotion in the first place.
How you respond to a career setback will determine your future for you. You can use your disappointment as a springboard to achieve success and become more focused on your performance and productivity. A few key points to consider recovering after a career setback are talked about below.
Advice To Recover After A Career Setback
Ask Yourself Why?
After the initial shock and denial, it is time to accept and assess the situation. Ask yourself how things went wrong. Learn from your mistakes and examine your role in the decision. Do not find refuge in sympathetic family members and friends. Instead, get feedback from different people like your superiors, peers, and subordinates, asking them for honest and true feedback. Do not become outraged if you hear some things, you don’t like or weren’t expecting. No matter how bad it seems to you, this feedback will help you improve in the future. Accept your faults, size the situation, and think about what can be done to turn a negative scenario into one that is positive and more productive. One that will assist you in regaining your lost respect and trust. Only by accepting your own mistakes will you be able to move forward and upwards.
Look For The Right Oppurtunity
Change in a job or career can be frightening. However, you still have the skills and the experience of the work, plus the added advantage of the lessons you have learned from the setback. Take all of those in mind and after finding the right opening, use them to your advantage by becoming a better version of yourself. Take a measured approach and devise coping strategies, act with conviction, and you’ll be on your way to recovering, thriving, and succeeding in your new job.
The circumstances are new, and so should your perspective be, too. Assess all your options and choose the one which has the greatest potential. Remember, you are the one who can change and then take action, and it is only you who will hold you back in a career setback and no one else.
Remain Positive
A career setback is not the end of the world. Millions of people around the world go through job losses, demotions, and career setbacks. It does not mean that you have completely failed as a person or that you are worthless. Use this opportunity to strengthen your skills and focus on your interests and passions. As you explore new directions, you might find and discover how mentally tough and strong you are. It will help you believe more in yourself and become flexible and confident in achieving career success.
Final Thoughts
Life is unexpected and often dishes out disappointments that one would rather not have. Career disappointments are much too common and very real. Some setbacks will be small, while others will make you feel that your world just crumbled around you.
Regardless of how big or small a setback to your career is, these techniques, if followed, will help to overcome the disappointment, and give you a push to move forward and defeat the obstacles in your path.