{"id":74067,"date":"2014-06-09T06:30:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T11:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=74067"},"modified":"2014-06-09T10:01:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T15:01:25","slug":"how-to-thrive-after-a-set-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=74067","title":{"rendered":"How to Thrive After a Set-Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

How to Thrive After a Set-Back<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"diana<\/a>Sometimes things happen in your professional life that you have no control over. The secret is to\u00a0think of how you can turn these events into opportunities. (Easier said than done, I know.) In my\u00a0usual way, I\u2019ll explain with an example from my own life.<\/p>\n

Early in April I was let go from my position due to restructuring within the organization and\u00a0subsequent redundancy of my position.<\/strong> I was lucky because this didn\u2019t come as a shock; I had\u00a0about five weeks between when I realized the inevitable and when I was let go. That\u2019s a lot of\u00a0time for planning. I also lucked out because the organization I worked for has some amazing\u00a0people who all looked out for me. (I realized then, as I do now, just how lucky I was.) Honestly,\u00a0I can\u2019t speak highly enough of the company I worked for or the people I worked with.<\/p>\n

All of this enabled me to plan early and hit the ground running when I was eventually let go. You\u00a0might need more time to adjust to circumstances than I needed to, or perhaps you\u2019ve been under\/\u00a0unemployed for a while now and just need to readjust your strategy. Regardless, it\u2019s the strategy\u00a0that I want to focus on now.<\/p>\n

Being unemployed gave me one thing I hadn\u2019t had while working: time.<\/strong> Time to job search,\u00a0to network, and to better position myself for the job I wanted. I had been working in corporate\u00a0investment banking, and while I was perfectly competent at my job and appreciate all the\u00a0experience I gained, the position didn\u2019t work to my strengths. In fact, working in corporate\u00a0banking further solidified my desire to work in public service and libraries. Being unemployed\u00a0gave me the time to work towards that goal.<\/p>\n

Here are my tips for restructuring your job search strategy after a setback:<\/p>\n

1. Be gentle with yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing I did was allow myself time to rest. I had been working 10-hour days, minimum,\u00a0for over a year. At the beginning of a transition it\u2019s important to not expect yourself to hit the\u00a0ground running, or to expect to know what you\u2019ll need to do immediately. You need time to plan\u00a0and mentally prepare yourself. If the transition came as a shock then it\u2019s doubly important for\u00a0you to be gentle with yourself. Give yourself time to adjust, and don\u2019t beat yourself up.<\/p>\n

2. Begin to plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is important. A plan, or strategy, will give you a framework for what you need to do. It\u00a0will give you direction for the days you\u2019re not sure what you should do, and it will help you be\u00a0optimistic about the future. What type of jobs do you want? What are the general requirements\u00a0for that position? How can you leverage your past experiences to help you? What experience or\u00a0skills do you currently lack, and how can you gain them?<\/p>\n

3. Get your resume in order<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you have your game plan and know what jobs you\u2019re aiming for you can get your resume\u00a0in order. Really spend some time on this and explain how your experiences make you qualified.\u00a0I won\u2019t go into resume writing here (though feel free to contact me if you have a question), but\u00a0there are already fantastic posts and resources out there.<\/p>\n

4. Get reacquainted with the community<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this, odds are your chosen job has something to do with librarianship. Your\u00a0next step, then, is to get involved with the library community. Join ALA if you haven\u2019t already,\u00a0as well as any other relevant organizations (I\u2019m also a member of METRO). Join groups on\u00a0LinkedIn and Facebook. Read about current affairs in the library world, new advancements,\u00a0recent issues or discussions. Most important, get involved! Join conversations, tweet or\u00a0otherwise post interesting articles, compliment others on interesting and well-though-out replies\u00a0to posts. Not only will this make you feel more connected to the community, it will help get your\u00a0name out there.<\/p>\n

5. Network, network, network<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nowadays, some obscene percentage of people will get positions through networking (I think it\u2019s\u00a0something like 85%-90%, but don\u2019t quote me on that). It really is necessary, and it\u2019s easier to do\u00a0than you think. Engaging people on social media is networking, as is informational interviewing.\u00a0The more people you engage with and know that you\u2019re currently looking for an opportunity, the\u00a0higher your likelihood of you finding opportunities.<\/p>\n

6. Think outside the box when it comes to opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019m looking into volunteer opportunities. It\u2019s a way for me to get experience and to\u00a0network. I\u2019m also in a position where I can take a part-time job. Two part-time jobs, where either\u00a0one or both is helping you gain professional experience, can be just as helpful as a full-time\u00a0position. It might be a bit harder to juggle, but it\u2019s worth it if it leverages you for success in the\u00a0near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ South Carolina How to Thrive After a Set-Back Sometimes things happen in your professional life that you have no control over. The secret is to\u00a0think of how you can turn these events into opportunities. (Easier said than done, I know.) In my\u00a0usual way, I\u2019ll explain with an example from…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5034,3996,3633,266,5961,6283,111,5994],"class_list":["post-74067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-creating-opportunities","tag-diana-la-femina","tag-inalj-south-carolina","tag-job-search","tag-job-search-tips","tag-set-backs","tag-tips","tag-unemployment-opportunities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diana-la-femina.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-jgD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}