Finding Success in Failure
Due to many things happening in life, I have reflected on roughly two years of my life. Like everyone else, things have gotten complicated for various reasons, and I have been doing everything that I can do to survive and continue to improve myself. That said, one lesson that has stuck with me the most is how to fail.
Much of what is on social media seems to be the best moments of others' lives. Of course, there will be exceptions. But I wanted to share what I learned and how I embrace my failures.
Before getting in, the most important class in my Animation and Game Development major was traditional 2D animation; before then, I was a Computer Science major. I switched over because I had failed and needed a change. The first day, we got a lecture about how the class grades on a curve, and only so many of us would make it through the program. For those that do not know me, I'm not known for my drawing skills, I can get by, but it was not my number one passion. I know I made it in and graduated because I learned how to fail quickly and get feedback before investing too much time. I got through because of my technical skills.
I have been searching for a job in my degree for about two years as of this writing. I know some people in similar positions have kept count of their applications, but I have not. I am sure that it is around 200 jobs. At this point, even without an offer for a dream job, I can say that I am grateful for my chance to be pursuing opportunities. I have sent applications to companies I never expected to have a chance with and even had interviews and technical tests with them. Companies have surprised me and made me want to work for them even more, despite having potential biases about how I thought they might operate. But the one that has ended up being the most important is the number of people I have connected with because I take the chance.
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One connection led to my current position as a recruiter, which has been insightful into the hiring process. I know that this has probably led me to keep in touch with as many recruiters as can tolerate me, including my current coworkers. Of course, the other exciting part is grabbing questions from candidates I'm talking with and utilizing those when I am on the other side of the interview.
Earlier this year, I was able to help out with GDC (Game Developer's Conference) as a Conference Associate, and I helped moderate chats and kept tabs on events. Through that, I have made some incredible connections that have pushed me to take even more risks. By nature, that ends up with more failures but eventually leads to success. I have kept in touch with several people who interviewed me while applying for more jobs.
The last thing I wanted to touch on is that I have learned to take care of my mental health through my failures and because of them. I have worked with several different professionals over the years and have finally gotten things dialed in. It's easy to say that failure is welcome because it does make you feel vulnerable, but it will lead to success at some point. However, that may not happen in the way we were ever expecting. So to anyone who needs it, keep trying, learn from your failures, and that itself can be your success until you can find what you are looking for.