Dr Sherrie Lee | Tag: resilience

“*Rose blooming against the odds”, photograph by Sherrie Lee*

It is tough out there for job seekers.

Headlines shout bad news almost daily: “Young people struggle to find work” and “Unemployment rate soars”. It’s no wonder our minds get into a tailspin and our anxiety levels rise.

I experienced it during my job search following job redundancy, and I sense it now among graduating students, as well as their parents who have started posting on LinkedIn about their young people in need of a lucky job break.

As a career consultant, and a former international student graduate who struggled to find work in New Zealand, I share how you can become “career-hopeful” in very trying times.

First, it’s worth noting that bad news stays in our minds longer than good news. It also takes 3-5 positive events or interactions to counter a negative one. It’s not about denying the facts of the job market or the state of the economy, but it’s about focusing on things we can control and engaging in activities that help us improve our mood, practice skills or learn new ones, and ultimately provide hope that we can look forward to our future.

The STAR mnemonic is often used as an interview technique for demonstrating your competencies: Situation, Task, Action, Result: Describe the Situation and explain the Task with details about the Action you took, concluding with the Result of your action. We also use the STAR approach to develop our CV and cover letter. Because STAR is used to help articulate your abilities and values, it can also be used to help create positive events and interactions in your job search journey.

S for Situation and Success. Instead of describing a situation, you are creating one. Think about another S word – success. What is one thing you would like to be successful at? One common challenge for jobseekers is networking. Even for an extrovert like me, and particularly in a time when there are few relevant jobs to apply for, the last thing I wanted to do was to dress up, go someplace, and meet people in the hope of finding work. Yet, research tells us time and time again that our networks are an important factor in finding work opportunities and potential intel. The act of networking also provides an opportunity for us to let others know about who we are and contribute something valuable to a conversation. If you’re not naturally sociable or are feeling sceptical about networking, perhaps set yourself a challenge – attend one networking event with the goal of meeting and talking to at least two new people. If you make it to the networking event and chat with a few people, congrats! You’ve overcome fear or inertia and have learned to make new connections.

Find opportunities to take control of the situation and set yourself some achievable goals – the feeling of success should not be underestimated. For me, networking was a dopamine boost for my job search journey. It helped me get out of comfy clothes and remind myself that I was – and still am – a professional with something valuable to share and a curiosity to learn.

T for Task and Test. Set yourself some tasks to do towards a specific purpose. And here’s another T word to consider – test. Use these tasks to test your ideas and thinking and help you make decisions. For example, you might be thinking of switching industries or getting a new qualification. Talk to people in the industry or those who have made the switch or talk to the course provider about the entry requirements and career prospects. Make time to explore a question you have, a ‘what if’ scenario, and seek out others to help you find answers. Setting up smaller tasks and testing things helps to break down major decision-making into doable steps.

I often set up informational interviews with people when I want to find out more about moving to a different field or area of work. For example, I connected with people working in the training and coaching industry when I was considering becoming a career coach. These were a mix of coffee chats and short video calls that helped me understand what people did, and what they enjoyed about it, testing my own career ideas.

A for Action and Active. What actions could you take to engage in sharing or improving your skills and knowledge? You could volunteer your time and services in the local community or learn something new through a free online course on platforms like Coursera. Or give yourself permission to take a break from job searching and pick up a new hobby. Making a conscious decision to do something else that is meaningful will help you be refreshed and encouraged in your job search journey.

I enrolled in a micro-credential course in disruptive technologies which entailed weekly online guest lectures and working on assignments. This not only helped me gain new knowledge about an area I was interested in, but the structure also provided me with a routine and something to look forward to apart from just job hunting.

R for Result and Resilience. The result of all the above is Resilience. Identifying what you would like to be successful at, setting yourself doable tasks, testing ideas, and staying actively engaged in endeavours other than job hunting, will all help to improve your career resilience. We can’t deny the bumps we are experiencing, but we can learn to face up to them bravely and confidently.

It wasn’t always easy for me to wake up each day to bad news streaming on social media about not finding jobs. However, I found that by focusing my energy on things I could do, people I wanted to meet, and things I wanted to learn, I was in a much better frame of mind to look for work that resonated with my aspirations and values.

I hope the STAR approach provides a way for you to find career hope just as it has done for me.

This article was written for the Careers Newsletter produced by the Careers and Employment Team at Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

In the past two months, my world was shaken, stirred, and has only begun to settle. My professional world was squished into a corner of a room with the strongest wifi signal. The physical structures and rhythms of office life were exchanged for self-managing feats of video calls, long email trails and easily forgotten coffee and toilet breaks. If this wasn’t intense enough, then the backdrop of home life tantrums and discontent weaving in and out of a busy workday would crank up the dial. As work pressures increased with urgent responses, so did the disillusionment of family bonding in forced spaces.

Without a doubt, my whole family’s disrupted routines were colliding with each other. And when I was able to mentally put this evolving drama aside, I looked to my work for a sense of balance and peace, only to find that I was walking a tightrope above imbalance and chaos. These were the dark times of lockdown – working from home, but also at home with everyone adjusting to restricted activity and forms of expression.

I recall my effort to lighten the burden of lockdown: Snapping gratitude pics of home baking, crafting, dressing up for work selfies, and posting them on a personal board to remind myself of life’s little pleasures. But these moments were transient and shallow comfort compared to the recurring emotions of feeling spent and helpless, often at bedtime, sometimes in tears. Evening disappeared into the morning; another day had passed, but a new day also brought hope again.

I was travelling between darkness and light. Darkness was the calmness of night time rest; a private room to wring distress from my mind; a welcome end to a day of strife. Light was the promise of plenty; the engine of action; an illusion that productivity was the elixir of life. I had naively thought that the lockdown was a long pause of meaningful recalibration of life’s wants and needs. As I emerge from being held prisoner in my own home (and mind), the recalibration is only starting.

During the journey through darkness and light, I searched the Psalms for comfort. King David had worse days than me. He was hunted down by a jealous and raging King Saul; he had to come clean before God about his adultery and committing murder to cover up his adultery; he was besieged by enemies, including his own son who turned against him. But in all these trials and tribulations, he cried out to God, declaring that while we are only but a breath, God is our Rock and Dwelling Place, ever close to our broken spirits, and delivering us from our troubles.

Each time I crawled into a dark place of despair, I remember the last time God rescued me from myself. I’m also thankful for being part of a church community where we encourage each other in our faith, reminding each other of our ultimate source of comfort and assurance. Travelling between darkness and light has been trying, but the struggle has made me realised more than before that “everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure” (Psalm 39:5). I have understood more deeply what it means to be fragile, and I see more clearly the futility of temporary fixes.

In terms of recalibrating after lockdown, I’m making a gradual transition back to the office. I value work from home arrangements a lot more now that our family’s routine is more or less restored. Saving a few extra hours a day from travel means feeling less tired and being able to have more conversations with my children and husband. But I also value the measured rhythm of an office environment such as walking to the printer to pick up documents, being physically present with colleagues (that is, whoever is at the office), and knowing that I will leave the building at some time and return home.

We have been talking about a new normal after lockdown and in the aftermath of the pandemic. While we figure out what this new normal looks like, we also need to build up our resilience and capabilities to address the helter-skelter of our times, and travel with more confidence between darkness and light.

Tag: resilience

Nurturing career hope in challenging times

Travelling between darkness and light: Reflections on lockdown