From Injury to Unemployed to Back on the Saddle

Happy Hump Day,

As some of you may remember, I created a few posts over the last year discussing a career ending injury (not diagnosable in time for proper medical leave), leaving no choose but to resign from my job and lie in bed for roughly a year until a proper diagnosis and surgery resolved my injury.

I figured I would post lessons I have learned throughout this period of my life, aiming to fit a broader audience.

Short Version:

Extended Version:

I. Mentality Is Everything

Surprisingly, the ~1 year I was bedridden was in many ways easier to cope with than the period after, in which I was seeking employment. For me, having surgeon after surgeon tell me there was nothing they could do provided me with:
a) Motivation to work harder to find a diagnosis (I thrive on non-believers)
b) Time to explore different career paths within Finance
c) The opportunity to learn skills I otherwise wouldn’t (programming, etc.)
d) The ability to train myself to focus on the positives instead of dwelling on what can’t be changed or who to blame (work in progress)

After I received surgery and fully recovered, I found this period more difficult than my time injured. Personally speaking, not having a reason for your current unemployment lowers your esteem and self worth a bit. For the few months I actively applied to jobs on my own with no real interviews, and no injury to use as a scapegoat (ironic). Fortunately, like many things in life, everything worked out recently; within the last two-three weeks my first interview ago transformed into 4-5 different firms reaching out, with the first bank giving an exploding offer letter shortly after coming into the office for the final round.

II. A Daily Routine is Necessary

Throughout both my injury time and employment-seeking phase, the only thing preventing me from going insane was adding much needed structure in my life. Exercising daily was a must for me, as well as continuing to learn and reinforce these new subjects, and most importantly seeking employment through venues best fit given your circumstances.

III. Save Time for You

Ironically, the hardest thing for me to do was to reincorporate partying/hobbies/connecting with friends back into my life. I was so set on landing a job after recovering from surgery that everything else took a backseat. While making sure you are actively and efficiently seeking employment is important, spending 10 hours each day doing so will lead to diminishing returns and undesirable results IMO. Set a specific amount of time each weekday for job-related activity, accomplish your goals, and focus on other aspects of your life; I cannot stress this enough.

That’s it for now – if any of you are in a similar boat to what I was in over the past year feel free to shoot me a message.