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5 Ways to Manage a Career Setback
Featured Author:
Anuradha Mayer
Anuradha Mayer is the founder and principal partner of Lead Beyond Consulting. She has over 15 years of combined, organization development, executive coaching and human resource management experience.
Anuradha has a passion for helping people reach their potential and always seeks breakthrough thinking of new possibilities for her clients.
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Anuradha Mayer | Excelle
3. Assess What Happened
If you’re struggling with disappointment related to not getting a promotion, ask the hiring manager to articulate what was missing in your skills and experience. These discussions may uncover things that were more important in the decision than you realized. While we may not always agree with the outcome, there is a learning opportunity that arises from disappointment.
4. Consider the Possibilities
Think about your career goals before the setback. Are these still your goals? Could this setback perhaps be a reality check of what you really want? Oftentimes, we are seduced by a job title or more money, only to realize those things do not actually make us happy. Could this disappointment be an opening to another possibility? Perhaps you have wanted to work in the non-profit sector or to explore opportunities in another part of the company. There are possibilities in every disappointment.
5. Redefine Your Goals
Visualize where you want to be and what you will be doing that brings you career fulfillment — this will be your vision. Come up with new goals based on this vision, your learnings from the recent career setback, and the assessment of where you want to build your skills and experience. Make your goals specific and measureable. Maybe ask a trusted friend or colleague to check in regularly to help you stay focused on what you want to achieve.
Careers, like life, don’t always go the way we expect. For me, along with many of my friends and colleagues, a career setback was a blessing that allowed for some important learning or created a new, more compelling possibility. Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad once said “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.”
jccantfindwork
12 months ago
14 comments
I suffered some major career setbacks when I became ill and had to reassess what I could actually handle on a day to day basis. I could no longer be the social worker who was "on call" 24/7, my MD said that had to go. I didn't know where to turn. When my employer wasn't ready to cooperate with my requests for reduced hours and workload, I was devistate. So I wasn't as valuable as I thought! I began to frantically look for another job to replace the old one but with less hours and responsibility. I landed some interviews but not any offers. I had to decide between my ego and my health. Eventually, when I learned I may be terminally ill, I chose my health and took a step back away from social work. I had to depend on my living from Social Security Disability payments. I felt like a total failure but the nuch needed rest and focus on my recovery helped. After some time, I began to do volunteer work and got involved in politics which I always had a passion for. I was amazed how quickly I was rising to important positions within the political framework. Ego was resurfacing. I was recently cleared by my MD to go back to paid employment as long as it was reasonable and not too stress inducing. I landed a job as an independent contractor and I can work as little or as much as I want from my home. If this job produces enough income, it will truely be a dream come true. Anyway, although it took a period of years, my career setbacks have taught me a lot about what is really important and have provided me with opportunities I never would have had otherwise.
Tazz
12 months ago
4 comments
I believe I have been experiencing this for this year. My business has been my total focus, for so many years. That I have completely forgotten what I loved about what I do.
I have gotten to the point where I doubt my abilities as a business women, mom, and a wife.
When the season began past march of 2008, the gas went up, economy went down, and the bids were not being accepted, I found myself shutting down. To the point I only did invoices, and estimates nothing eles. At the sametime I stressed and worried but really did nothing but take care of my own landscape. My space, my property, and felt bad at times to the point of feeling guilty for enjoying it.