How To Use Resilience To Upgrade Your Life And Job Search

4 min read

Employers want resilient candidates.

That’s not likely a surprise to anyone.

I’ve talked about the importance of this a lot. In response, someone recently asked me, “What do you do to bounce back from a serious setback?” I shared with them some of the ways I’ve used and some I’ve seen others use.

I’ll share those with you shortly, but first, let’s quickly cover…

Why Is Resilience Important?

It matters both professionally and personally.

Put simply, life happens to all of us.

People lose their parents, get laid off, experience a bad breakup, have serious medical issues in the family, or encounter one of any number of bad things.

From a professional perspective, employers should be supportive & compassionate when people are going through tough times. But, employees ultimately need to pick themselves back up.

And it’s not just for the good of the company; it’s also for your own good. You may have people (a partner, kids, parents) depending on you.

So then, how to be resilient? And since it’s valuable to companies to have resilient employees, how do we communicate that in an interview?

✅ Being Resilient

Let me start by stating the obvious. Feeling upset is natural when something bad happens. Nothing I’m going to talk about is intended to minimize that. There might be some pretty serious things you’ll have to deal with. You may already have had to.

That said, here’s how I approach dealing with sadness once an appropriate amount of time has passed.

1. Focus on things in my circle of control

Sometimes, a tough event can make life seem out of control. Depending on the event, it may have been out of your control. But you still have to deal with its consequences.

While I may not have been able to control the event, I can control things like

– Whether I get out of bed

– Do I go to bed at a reasonable time

– Am I disciplined about getting to class and

– Am I on top of my work etc.

– Do I eat healthy food that will give me energy

In times like this, it helps me to control what I can control.

🌟especially if I don’t feel like it 🌟

2. Practice gratitude

If you’re reading this, there is A LOT to be grateful for in your life, even if it might be hard to see.

There’s too much to get into in this post, but I’ve come across plenty of scientific evidence that suggests gratitude & negative emotions like anxiety don’t typically exist together.

🙏 keep a gratitude journal

🙏 email one person a day & say thank you for something

🙏 pause to appreciate the simple beauty around you

3. Hit the gym

This has 3 big benefits. It

💪 lets me blow off steam

💪 helps me feel better about myself &

💪 gives me energy

This may or may not be your thing

Regardless, I’d recommend finding some version of exercise that you can lean into when things are tough (& the fatigue can help you sleep)

4. Doing hard things

There is a real psychological benefit to doing hard things. This is especially true in rough times. Challenging yourself and beating those challenges can really help you. It can be as simple as turning the water to cold for the last 30 seconds of your shower.

Few people like the sudden dose of cold water.

Overcoming the mental aversion to it can be very powerful. You can prove to yourself again and again that you can master your mind, which is really what’s holding you back from turning on the cold water.

Besides that, there’s good evidence that cold exposure is actually good for you.

✅ How To Address It In An Interview

So now, let’s say you’ve started implementing some of these approaches or already use your own. How do you get the benefit of being resilient in a job interview?

There are a couple of ways to approach this:

Directly

🎯 Find an opportunity to say, “One skill I’ve tried to build is resilience.” For example, I experienced xxxx, and that was pretty tough. I did A, B, and C to help myself bounce back from it.”

Indirectly

🎯In response to many versions of “tell me about a time when you…”, find a way to insert “this was a particularly tough time for me personally, but we all have to bounce back from tough stuff, so I…”

You can add this to an answer to a question about showing leadership (lead yourself first), how you overcame a challenge or any number of other questions.

Don’t be afraid to pivot to answer this after you’ve answered the one they asked.

Find a logical way to tie it together, then go into it. It’s your responsibility to make sure that they hear about your key attributes.

Closing Thoughts

Not everyone can bounce back after something difficult happens. Make sure the potential employers know you’re one of those people.

It will help you stand out.