“The Demons Inside Your Head”

“Superman? You’ll never be Superman. Because you have no idea what it means to be Superman. It’s not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest. It’s about what you do… it’s about action.” — Infinite Crisis

I’ve been a recruiter in the tech industry for nearly ten years. My biggest passion is connecting talent to missions that will fulfill their core passion.

As time goes by, it becomes clearer to me that the fight for new recruits is becoming more and more intense — not just in the tech sector, but across all industries. There is no doubt that 2016 is one of the difficult hiring period in the last four years.

In today’s hiring era, what makes someone successful in a particular role today might not tomorrow if the competitive environment shifts, the company’s screen strategy changes, or if he or she must collaborate with or manage a different group of colleagues. So the question is not whether your company’s employees and leaders have the right skills; it’s whether they have the potential to learn new ones. This factor in addition to the constant talent hunt makes our mission as recruiters even harder.

If you want to succeed as a recruiter today, you need to sustain success in the workplace through an ongoing display of abilities throughout your working lives, so that you are able to perform at your best not just in the current role, but in all roles you have take on.

I have found that I have problem to survive pressured situations and to bounce back after setbacks. The complication is that where there are people working together, there is emotion. And no doubt, I am an emotional person. This post reflects my personal insight, from a point of a broken heart to the point of resilience. The journey that I have done till now sharpen my performance as a recruiter and helped me to manage with this new hiring era, but most of all thought me once again to believe in myself and to love my role as a recruiter.

So how did it all start?! The demons inside my head. They took me to a place of constant rejection, negative atmosphere and not believing in my professional capabilities as a recruiter. As time goes by, I learned that if they are bothering me enough to ask this question then they are telling me something. They may be telling me how I really feel, what scares me, what I don’t like about myself or what I would like to change about me.

I have come to a conclusion, that as a recruiter I need to work on my emotional resilience (“the ability to continually choose the feelings, thoughts and actions that help you achieve results and perform at your best at personal, team and organizational levels”). Very few people would dispute the importance of resilience for being successful in today’s workplace. Emotional resilience requires focus; it is not a skill to be learned today and forgotten tomorrow.

I have started to be aware to those voices inside my head. If you agree then act to change the situation. If you don’t agree then argue. Why don’t you agree? Be clear, be rational, be firm and don’t give up. If you know things aren’t as negative as they say, contradict them. You have to believe what you say is correct though, even if it doesn’t feel true. The other possibility is that you are denying that you are unhappy or even depressed. Now I know that pain and much more than stress, discomfort or anxiety, is my feedback. I have learned to embrace it!

I think that moving somewhere new challenges you in ways you never knew were possible before. You quickly discover what demons you tried to escape by moving as soon as you realize that they followed you to wherever you landed. Any comfort you once took in the familiarity will be ripped to shreds as you learn to stand on your own, to delve into who you truly are and re-invent yourself into who you want to be.

When you open yourself up to new ideas, new interests and new ways of living as you grow and evolve at a faster rate than ever before, you also realize that while your world has transformed drastically, the one you left behind remains the same, and you see the importance of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

Just give yourself time. Give yourself patience and room for mistakes. Give yourself grace, understanding and humility. Give yourself a kick in the ass when you need it, but also give yourself a relaxing day off when deserved. But most importantly, give yourself the biggest congratulations, because you made it. You did it. You followed through with the life you wanted and took the steps to get there. You conquered something that most people will never get to, and you continue to conquer it every day that you are living.