How to Build Resilience In Your Career

Career resilience is a catchy term that has come out recently. Career resilience is keeping up with the job market and its ebbs and flows. It means being prepared for unexpected job loss. It means being agile, adaptable, and portable in your approach to your career.

Career resilience means having your resume and cover letter up to date if you come across a new intriguing position opening. This resilience in regards to your career is a skill that needs to be strengthened and developed. Below you will find several ways to build your career resilience.

1. Know Your Abilities 

Take note of what you do best at in your current role and previous positions you have held. Make sure to jot down both hard and soft skills. Soft skills are characteristics or traits that you have that can be pivoted to other job roles, such as communication skills, positivity, and teamwork. On the other hand, hard skills are technical ones you have learned on the job, such as knowing how to code, using specific software, or a piece of machinery. 

After you assess your skills, go and update your resume, and write a sample cover letter. Make sure to highlight these soft and hard skills in both documents to show off who you are and your capabilities.

2. Don’t be a Sulky Skunk

Do not ask yourself, “why me” or start to blame yourself for an unjustified firing or being furloughed. It’s been a difficult year, and many companies had to make cuts to different departments or go under altogether. It’s okay to feel worried and depressed by what occurred in the workforce in 2020, but you have to move on. 

Understand what happened, accept it (be grumpy for a bit), but then move on and use it as motivation. 

If you need help building resilience, listen to Dr. Lucy Hone’s TED Talk, “The Three Secrets of Resilient People.”

3. You Don’t Have Time? Make Time.

If you are currently unemployed, then applying to jobs should serve as a full-time job. It would be best to treat it like one by setting out a daily and weekly schedule and having a routine. Don’t just sit there in sweatpants looking at a television all day. Additionally, make sure to update your LinkedIn profile and post often on the platform to get noticed by recruiters and those in the field you’re seeking to enter.

If you are still employed but need to strengthen your career resilience, then make time in your schedule. Try to dedicate one or two hours per week to being active on LinkedIn or other online job groups. Also, continue to update your resume, or at the least, track any new skills acquired. Doing so will help when you apply to jobs and connect your skillset to the job description.

For other tips on how to build career resilience, check out JobHero’s guide on career resilience below.