Career resilience (June 2009)

Resilience. It’s a word you've probably heard mentioned a fair bit recently, and it’s one you’re likely to hear even more as the recession continues to bite. It seems that in tough times, resilience is crucial.

So, how has resilience risen to such prominence during the recession? Why is it being mooted as an essential tool for managing the economic crisis?

Most people understand resilience to mean the ability to adapt well to new situations and adversity. The Latin derivative, resiliens, refers to the pliant or elastic quality of a substance, implying a capacity to absorb negative conditions, integrate them in meaningful ways, and move forward.

In this context, the value of resilience during tight times is only too clear. What’s equally clear is that it also has an awful lot to offer the world of careers.

Exploring what we know about individual and community resilience in challenging times offers some valuable insights into how people might respond to an uncertain job market and rising unemployment. In other words, the idea of “career resilience” is starting to emerge as a way to manage turbulent economic conditions.

So what is career resilience? How can it help people manage the current economic crisis and, perhaps just as important, what relevance will it have once the recession has run its course?

Changing career patterns

Career patterns today are markedly different from those of the generations that have gone before. If you asked someone to describe a career 50 years ago, they would probably have said it was having a job for life. Today, the description is far more comprehensive, and includes the notion of bringing together all the experiences a person has over their lifetime, including their family life, friendships, community activities, cultural ties, leisure choices, work and learning.

In other words, a career is a process of making life meaningful. It is not simply a matter of the jobs we may do, or the roles we play, but rather, why those jobs and roles matter to us. It is finding a sense of direction and pursuing pathways that we value.

And, in an environment where career patterns are less predictable, resilience is key. Career resilience is about adapting to adversity in your own career development and making use of your life experiences and relationships to help guide your decisions. It’s also about grabbing opportunities (and sometimes creating them), taking planned risks, coping effectively with unexpected changes, and working to a broad plan that best suits your evolving interests and experiences.

How can career resilience help?

Given the present economic climate, a strong dose of career resilience sounds like good sense. Having high levels of resilience offers you a different way of looking at the difficulties that present themselves along your career path.

People with resilience understand that no matter how prepared they are, no matter how much knowledge they attain or skills they develop, even the work most ideally suited to them will bring setbacks from time to time. These people inherently know that such challenges will foster innovation, so they greet the challenge with enthusiasm.

The world is changing and we need to be prepared to change along with it. Just a generation ago, a career was viewed as a commitment to a lifelong occupation. Now, old occupations are disappearing, new ones are being invented, and many jobs have evolved to be considerably different than they were a few years ago.

Couple this with heightened competition and an increasingly demanding labour market – hallmarks of an economic recession – and the need for career resilience becomes inevitable.

Is career resilience relevant in good times?

The answer to this question would be a resounding yes. Throughout our lives, irrespective of economic conditions, we will encounter unforeseen opportunities, challenges and disappointments. On this basis alone, it’s plain that career resilience is an important skill to have at any time of your life.

The benefits of career resilience can be far-reaching, with evidence suggesting that people who show resilience during tumultuous times often develop a heightened spiritedness to future setbacks.

There's something empowering about knowing you can survive a crisis because you've done so before. This may be cold comfort for Generation Y, which is experiencing its first softening economy. But for many others, the current recession provokes memories of the stock market crash of 1987 and the Asian economic crisis of the early 1990s.

Here's something to ponder as you reflect on the rhetoric coming from some financial commentators, who are intent on equating this recession with something approaching the end of the world. The gloomiest predictions for the current crisis have New Zealand's unemployment rate peaking somewhere around 9 percent in 2010 before a recovery. In 1988, a year after the stock market crash, unemployment was at 11 percent and rising.

A 10-step guide to developing resilience

There’s no doubt that resilience is emerging as a necessary ability, not only in the context of a person’s career and the present economic climate, but also as an invaluable tool throughout an individual’s life. The American Psychology Association has studied resilience closely since 9/11 and has published a 10-point guide to developing individual resilience. This guide is just as easily read as a blueprint for building career resilience.

A resilient person is not only able to handle such experiences in the moment, but also bounce back afterward:

1. Develop supportive and caring relationships at home, among friends and colleagues. Accept help and support, and help others when they need it.
2. Remember that some crises are beyond your control. You can’t change events, but you can change the way you interpret and react to them. Try to accept this and look ahead.
3. Accept that change is part of life and that you will have to adapt to changing circumstances.
4. Set some realistic goals and take regular small steps towards achieving them. Ask yourself, "What’s the one thing I can accomplish today?", rather than focusing on the overarching goal.
5. Be decisive. Do as much as you can rather than avoiding problems and hoping they will go away
6. Try to understand your own experiences of dealing with loss, hardship or emotional problems. Appreciate what you have learned from these events.
7. Develop a positive view about yourself and be confident in your strengths and abilities
8. Try to take a longer-term perspective and don’t blow the significance of the event out of proportion.
9. Stay hopeful and optimistic. Visualise what you want, rather than worrying about what you fear.
10. Look after yourself and your health, keep fit and take time out for relaxation and peace. This will give you the strength and balance to deal with difficult situations.