How do you get back from failure?

[THC]

Samuel Beckett said it best.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

THC

 

[RichJF]

Thanks all for the advice.

The main issue regarding the future is that it's so uncertain. The mark was low enough that the desired certification is probably out of reach and beyond that, I have no interest whatsoever in continuing in the field I studied (politics). It sucks the life out of me a bit and I don't find any of the jobs in it suggested by careers counsellors to be appealing. So I feel like I'd need to start completely from scratch.

I had a history degree & went into oil & gas research...go figure. I knew someone who worked at a company & they gave me a shot. Do you have any family/friends/professional contacts like that who'll give you a paid internship or similar?

Don't let your degree/subject define your life. The most important thing is you've got a degree. Once you've got post-uni employment the subject doesn't really matter.

If you have the naus you could get a job & then do a post-grad degree in a more enjoyable subject.

At the end of the day, life is a journey filled with speed bumps of varying degrees. Keep going & you'll no doubt be successful.

 

[telstarbox]

I've had a awful year at uni both academically and mentally, and though I've passed most classes, I've just failed an essay horribly and frankly there is part of me that went to end my life because I can't see my life going anywhere now and can't face admitting to anyone that I haven't done good enough. Its thankfully my last year but that means I have little chance for 'redemption' now.

How do people bounce back from failure/a bad year and find success? My life is completely fine outside of academia, and I have ideas of projects I want to do but on the academia/career side, it's a hot mess.

I didn't do as well as I should have at uni - but I did do various paid jobs before and during my course. That put me in good stead for my first full-time job after graduation, which has since led to an interesting and lucrative career.

Please don't let your uni course define you - I'm sure you have more strings to your bow and sometimes it's a case of working out what motivates you, rather than what your paper certificates say you can do.

PS contrary to some posters above I have had to show my degree certificate once or twice. So put the best spin on it but don't lie

 

[najaB]

I've just failed an essay horribly and frankly there is part of me that went to end my life because I can't see my life going anywhere now and can't face admitting to anyone that I haven't done good enough.

One question: did you do put in all the effort that you could? If the answer is yes then you have done good enough to be able to make peace with yourself, because it it is the best you could have done. And, at the end of the day, the only person in the world who you have to satisfy is the person you see when you look in the mirror.

If you didn't then you know what to do differently next time. Either way, lower academic outcomes than you expected do not define your life.

How do people bounce back from failure/a bad year and find success? My life is completely fine outside of academia, and I have ideas of projects I want to do but on the academia/career side, it's a hot mess.

Number one thing is to recognise that there is no such thing as failure. When you attempt something there are two possible outcomes: you achieve what you wanted, or you learn what doesn't work. Taking an example right out of the news of the last few days, SpaceX launched the world's most powerful rocket yesterday and it blew up.

Yet the employees were all cheering.

Why? Because they had just launched the world's most powerful rocket. Next they need to launch it and have it not blow up. Then they need to launch it, have it not blow up and reach orbit. And then...

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Failure pays; people get rewarded for failure now you know