Resilience

Posted by: Alexandra Close - Posted on:

The world of work is cruel. It forces you to acknowledge parts of yourself that you have been suppressing for your entire life. You think you have finely-tuned your personality until you are thrown into a situation that you are completely uncomfortable with. Your confident, self-assured persona is soon thrown out of the window and replaced with a shyness, uncertainty and insecurity. Do I belong here? Am I the right person for this job? Does everyone realise how out of my depth I am?

That is the nature of the Graduate Scheme. There is a reason that they test your resilience throughout the recruitment process. I remember thinking why are they making us wait so long between stages? Why was that assessment centre so intense? There is a reason for it. It tests your ability to deal with the difficult situations that will become your everyday. Being pulled between commitments, dealing with uncompromising colleagues and ultimately being thrown into a job that you feel completely unqualified for.

For me, my friends, family and fellow grads have really helped me through this. They made me realise how overly critical of myself I was being. Ultimately when you are feeling overwhelmed you have to step out of the situation to give you a chance to reflect and regather your thoughts before you can carry on. I guess what I am trying to say is if you are struggling don’t be afraid to tell someone. Don’t criticise yourself too much and never think you are the only one feeling the way you are. Talk to people, take the little wins that life brings and remember the reasons why you decided to do the scheme in the first place. You are incredible.

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