Building career resilience

The global job market today is competitive, dynamic, and diverse. It’s important to recognise that some things may not go exactly to plan as you embark on your career.

How to build career resilience

Part of a successful career strategy is to be flexible in your approach and practice career resilience.

You will often encounter setbacks early on in your career, whether it’s missing out on a graduate program or not hearing back from a recruiter. Career resilience is how you adapt and learn from these experiences.

You can build career resilience by using self-assessment and decision-making activities to clarify your interests, choices and options.

Other tips for developing resilience include:

• Control. Learn to distinguish between what you can and can’t control. For example, you can’t control how others behave, but you can control how you behave toward others. Focusing on what you can do will help you to develop personal responsibility.
• Feedback. Seek advice on what you can improve on. Gaining an understanding of a situation and your role in it from another person’s perspective is a valuable way to learn and grow.
• Networking. Networking will help you to stay informed about jobs and opportunities. Learn more about networking to find out how to get started.
• Stay positive. Try writing down three positive things about your professional journey on a weekly basis. An example may be receiving a call back from a recruiter about your job application.
• Practice self-care. Give yourself time for regular exercise, quality sleep, socialising, and leisure activities. These activities are necessary to help you recharge.
• Focus on why. Create a plan detailing where you see yourself in two years and what you want to achieve. When you face setbacks remember why you chose this path and what you want. Accept that you will experience challenges along this journey, but this doesn’t have to impact your ultimate goal or objective.