Conscious Career – Day 0
The unemployed job seeker often presents a different picture. They have a different set of challenges, but the main one is rejection. One of the basic human needs is to feel loved and wanted. Unemployed people can struggle with this daily.
Whether employed or unemployed, most people who go through career transition find themselves dealing with some form of adversity. Fear, dissatisfaction, uncertainty, rejection and anger are very common. Even the person who has excitedly chosen the quest for a new job will likely encounter one or two of these emotions somewhere along the way.
However, dealing with such adversity isn’t all bad. In early 2010, a survey was released which proves that large-scale adversity can help people recognize their personal power. The survey, which was done during the 2009 recession, revealed that 90% of employees recognized that they were responsible for managing their own financial futures compared to only 8% who said it was their employers’ responsibility and 2% who said it was up to the government.
At that time, many people were confessing to me that they had become “comfortable” in their jobs even though they weren’t particularly happy. Being laid off rocked them to their roots and caused them to examine their lives from all angles. One gentleman took the time between jobs to spend it with his son, who was a boy scout. They went camping with the troop all over the Southwestern U. S. that summer. When he was ready to resume his job search, he said that he would never do 60-hour workweeks again. His adversity made him become a better father.
