Why losing your job is good for your career

Losing your job is good for your career (even though it doesn’t seem like it at the time).

Losing your job can happen for all sorts of reasons:

• Restructure because a new CEO needs to leave their mark on the organisation.
• Redundancy because your role is seen as no longer relevant.
• Forced out because your new manager doesn’t like you.
• Sacked because you didn’t perform in your role.

At the time you might be angry that it has happened to you or frightened of being able to find a new job.

Here’s the thing – losing your job is good for your career for two reasons:

1. Change.
2. Confidence (you build bounce-back-ability).

You could be in a job you hate:

• Micromanaged by your boss.
• Forced to do things that aren’t in customers best interests because of dumb KPIs.
• Frustrated by office politics stopping you from getting promoted.
• Bored of the same routine.

BUT, you will stay.

People suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. Leaving or changing teams is just too big a hurdle to leap and they accept the situation that they don’t like.

Feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim towards a captor.

Oxford English Dictionary

my career habit’s find the why tool is built on the insight that to change you need to have clear:

• Dissatisfaction with your current situation.
• Vision of the future to move to.
• First steps that you can follow easily.

And with these three in place you can overcome resistance to change – the status quo.

1. Losing your job forces you to change.

Losing your job is good for your career because it forces you to change. A change you wanted to do, but couldn’t muster enough motivation to overcome the resistance.

Your dissatisfaction and vision are now clear:

Dissatisfaction: I am unemployed.

Vision: A new job.

This clarity gives you the impetus to go out and find a new job.

I’m not suggesting that is easy. Finding a new job is hard.

I’m also not suggesting everyone wants to leave their job, but more often than not people would quite like a change.

We’ve got a free guide to take you through my career habit’s 7 step process to finding a new job if you need some help.

2. Losing your job builds your confidence.

The second reason losing your job is good for your career is because it builds your confidence.

You build confidence through your bounce-back-ability. The fact that you do get a new job.

Not only that you can find another job, but you can excel in your next job.

The definition of yourself is richer because your no longer only likely to succeed with one set of people. You can succeed in any company.

Until you set foot in another company, you don’t know that.

This confidence builds your career resilience:

The ability to bounce back from unexpected shocks to your career.

Do I have to lose my job to improve my career?

No, but it does help.

The simplest way to build your career resilience is to change jobs. That might mean changing teams or role within an organisation, or stepping out into a brand new organisation.

The fact that you go through this change and come out the other side builds your confidence.

Career resilience isn’t just about changing jobs.

You might love your current job, and have no interest in changing.

The second way to build your career resilience is to be connected to your leaders, colleagues and former colleagues.

Baz Luhrmann once said wear sunscreen. If there’s one piece of advice we can give you, it is to network.

We have heaps of content to help you with networking.

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