Resilience

Job searching is no joke. The amount of uphill battles, disappointments, ghosts, and self doubt is enough to make me wonder more than enough times if this will all be worth it. If I had to pick one lesson out of hundreds that it's taught me so far, it's the surprising adaptability of my resilience.

I've had an onsite interview get canceled on me, hiring managers/recruiters ghost on me, phone screens gone badly, multiple projects thrust upon me (3 in one week!), and countless rejections in this 2+ months job search so far. I can see all of these things happen again and again, easily. After all, there's no limit to how many rejections a candidate can experience in any given time frame. A rejection today doesn't mean there won't be another two waiting in my inbox in an hour, for instance.

However, through all this, I'm still alive and ok. I had coffee with a fellow bootcamp alum a few weeks ago, and she reiterated one thing I can always look forward to after an interview: the fact that after all that is said, not said, done, and not done, I can count on coming back to my nice and comforting bed.

Sounds silly, but this thought has done away with the tunnel vision of my interviews. The day (and life!) does not stop with the interview. Whatever the outcome is, I make sure I am ten steps ahead already, even if it's tiny, baby steps of making my way back to the warm embrace of my comforter.

I deliberately plan things to do after an interview before the interview even happens. I buy ingredients for the next dish I plan on conquering and have them ready in my kitchen to prep for when I'm done interviewing. I sign myself up for evening workshops at Rithm School to swing by to after a whole day of interviews. I make checklists of what I need to get from Trader Joe's so I can't just sulk my way through Powell Street and all the way home. I keep myself occupied to keep myself moving forward.

I attribute the resilience I've developed to the plan-ahead/look-ahead strategy I've built upon that bootcamp acquaintance's words of wisdom. .

Knowing that I have something to look forward to after an interview and when the job search ends is key. I will survive and I will get that job, and I cannot stop reminding myself of this when the going gets tough. Onward!