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Developing career resilience
Developing career resilience

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4.1 Problems with a model of change?

Using models such as Fisher’s can often provide an insight that might not otherwise have been found. Alternatively, you may have had some questions about this model. There may be limits to how useful you found it for understanding and developing career resilience. Some additional points that you could consider are:

  • The model assumes that change is ‘imposed’ from outside the individual through workplace or organisational change. Developing career resilience also includes initiating change – taking personal action to develop your career, learning and skill set.
  • The model is a general one, and implies that change events happen one at a time. You, and many others, may have experienced multiple changes in your working and personal life in rapid succession or at the same time. Multiple and rapid changes in working and life events can make change seem never ending.
  • Presenting a model for transition can make it appear as if everyone deals with change in the same way. In his work, Fisher makes it clear that individuals move through these stages in different ways and may experience some stages unconsciously. You may have noted that you have ‘skipped’ stages, or repeated some experiences more than once.

In the final activity, you’ll consider your own learning from Week 1 and set yourself an action that takes you on the first step to building your own career resilience.

Activity 8 Taking action

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Whether you are experiencing change now, or anticipate change in the near future, building career resilience matters.

This activity is an opportunity to reflect on what you have learned from Week 1 of this course. Start by asking yourself what career resilience means to you, and by considering how you have dealt with change in the past.

Adaptability is an important aspect of dealing with change, but it is also about trying new things and pushing what you feel comfortable doing.

What could you do this week to develop your career resilience further?

One option is to find out what other career options might be open to you – perhaps you could chat to someone you know who is self-employed, or search online to find small firms in your sector that are based in your local area. Have a go now.

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In this activity, you’ve thought briefly about one action that might take you a step further on your career resilience journey. Throughout this course, you’ll focus on several different aspects of career resilience and look at ways to develop your own resilience further.