Kent student William shares his top three tips to help you build resilience.
‘Graduating and finishing studying in the middle of a global pandemic can seem daunting, however, there are methods and mindsets to deal with the increased uncertainty when looking for graduate employment or perusing postgraduate courses.
‘Applying for graduate jobs and waiting to hear the outcome can be stressful. Developing methods and strategies to deal with this is a great skill to have. There are three key things I personally hold key to resilience: perspective, mindset, and physical wellbeing.
‘In this blog I will talk about how these three elements help me to be more resilient, with my studies and applying to jobs.
- Perspective
‘This is what I like to call ‘looking out’, understanding that companies maybe taking longer to process an application, due to a lower number of staff working and more applications. Looking externally at things beyond your control can help understand why things can be taking longer. Equally, looking in is just as important. If when applying to a job it comes back with unsuccessful, looking at the reasons why and think I can use this to improve. Taking the view that it was not a failure but something to learn from and there will be future opportunities, this is a longer time perspective, looking forward. Steve jobs once said, “you can only connect the dots looking back”.
- Mindset
‘Mindset is one of the biggest points of resilience. It is how you process a blow or set back. I try and use every job rejection as an indication that maybe I was not right for that role and I would not have enjoyed it. I follow a similar outlook on university work, if I get piece of work back that I am not happy with I use the feedback to better prepare for future essays and talk to academic staff about the feedback. This allows me to use it as a learning experience and not feel negative. This leads me into my next point of mindset, that also is closely aligned with perspective, letting things that are out of my control go. If I have applied to a job and been unsuccessful, I take that and move on and, it is out of my control and focus on what is next. A job or postgraduate application rejection can be very hard to take but putting it behind you and thinking ‘I did all I could’, then looking for new opportunities is just as important. This for me is a way of picking myself up and moving forward, a way of feeling I am progressing, ensuring that I do not let a job or postgrad application derail me from other things.
- Wellbeing
‘The final of my three points is physical wellbeing, for me this is really important with the other two areas that make my resilience. During lockdown many of us have become used to a daily walk, me included. Before the pandemic I was always interested in fitness and the connection between physical and mental health. I found when I was most active, I was doing well in most other areas of life. During the first lockdown, I started my day off with a long walk or run. The action of just being outdoors really helped set up the rest of my day. This then allowed me to have a set time of day to think about and manage the stress and anxiety of any jobs I was applying for. It also meant that I felt healthy physically and this does wonders for my mental health. I feel like I have more capacity to deal with things if I keep my physical wellbeing. This means it can be easier to process setbacks and deal with them and get back up from them.
‘In this blog I outlined how I have improved my resilience. However, the University’s Careers and Employability Service runs frequent sessions on building resilience, these are aimed at those seeking employment and how to manage stress in the recruiting process.’
Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash