2018: Year of growth

I don’t want to read too much into the “New year, new me” cliche. But in the past few weeks alone I’ve noticed a significant change in my mindset. And so what if the encouragement of a new year also helped…

I’ve recently been job searching again, and this time at full blast. In the midst of my job search I have a newfound confidence & surety of myself. I read an article about how a majority of females will only apply to a job if they think they fulfill 100% of the requirements, and males apply if they feel they fulfill just 60%. That was the first little kicker I needed to get myself into check. Because here’s the thing I realized: even if I don’t meet every single job requirement, I bring something unique to the table. I have my own set of skills, my own list of experiences that shaped me into the person I am today. And before this round of job applications, I felt like I wasn’t enough, and like I didn’t belong in a lot of these big companies I was applying to. But that’s because I didn’t have confidence in my own capabilities. The moment I took ownership of my strengths (and also my flaws & weaknesses), I felt like I was ready to conquer any interview I was offered.

I was trying to fit myself into these cookie cutter job requirements & completely forgot that my creativity & work ethic & passion & drive are all things that don’t come on my resume. My willingness to learn, the fact that I’m not afraid of failure, my eagerness to be a part of a greater goal; those are all traits that set me apart.

And THESE are the traits that need to come out during an interview, or even in my cover letters!

Most importantly, I think 2018 helped me grow, learn, experience life, & just live. Even though I didn’t fully pursue my writing or didn’t get a full-time job, my year wasn’t wasted. And honestly, I’m really proud that I’m able to not regret the fact that my career didn’t take off & that I didn’t get a single thing published or didn’t do a lot of the things I wanted to do last year. 2018 was still a really valuable year to me in that it showed me self-worth, and that’s more than I could ask for.