Resilience and Career Development - Information for Students
Resilience can be one of the keys to successful career development. The ability to cope with the ups and downs in life is very important during the process of deciding on a career and finding fulfilling education, training and employment.
Many people spend 12 or 13 years at school trying to fit in. After about ten years putting in the hours in the classroom, you get asked “What do you want to do with your life?” Lots of people shrug and think to themselves “You've been keeping me so busy here with homework and tests, I haven't really had a moment to give it too much thought”. Others look around and think "What are my friends doing? Maybe I should do that?"
Selecting an area to work in is a tricky business. Since many careers require you to work about 40 hours a week, this is a big chunk of your life – about 23.8 %. Over a 40 year career, it adds up to a whopping 76,800 hours. If you didn't think this decision could be worth taking some time over, think again.
In nature nothing grows forever. There is a cycle of growth for trees, waves, cyclones, wheat and careers. Most jobs have their ups and downs - days of glory and days of despair.
To make it even more tricky, many people end up in jobs that have little resemblance to the position they started with. So that's good news. Most people don't stick to the career choice they made as a school student.
Resilience
Resilience is the happy knack of bungy jumping through the pitfalls of life. Rising above hardship and adversity. As you set out on planning your career it is worth thinking about a few key issues.
Pick an industry you are interested in
Brains are useful but passion is essential for success. Most people don’t stay in the same job they start with, but they often stay in the same area of endeavour. Find an industry or area of life you can believe in. Doesn't matter if its healthcare, hotels or hat making.
Think about what you like doing and do more of it
Success is often about figuring out what you like and are good at and doing more of it. It's also handy to think about what you really can’t stand doing and try not to do that.
A job is just a job
Some people have an expectation of the work place that they should belong, have a sense of being cared for or that their work colleagues will be a kind of second family for them. Sure it's great if you make friends with people through work, but don't rely on it.
Many roads lead to the same place
In school a lot of emphasis is placed on getting good marks as a way of succeeding in life. Good marks help, but in many areas of life there are other ways of achieving great outcomes. Look around for opportunities to gain experience in areas that are relevant to what you want to do.
Don't be swayed by negative people
People will gladly tell you why you can't do something. Opinions about why something is not possible for you will get tossed around by your family, your friends and maybe even some of your teachers. Once you've set a goal for yourself, stay focused on the goal you want and let others do the worrying about all the obstacles. Never lose sight of your dreams.