When you work in HR,  everyone wants to tell you about their job search or HR horror story. I try to help where I can but sometimes I’m more of a sounding board. This was the case with me last week when someone started to tell me about their job search.

It is a typical story:

Employee is unhappy with current job.

Starts looking.

Gets a job offer.

Declines the job offer .

And then finds out the company she was going to take a job with was sold.

Much patting on the back and “dodged a bullet” conversation ensues.

 

BUT, did she really dodge a bullet?

It’s hard to say because mergers and acquisitions are tricky.  Sometimes people get laid off,  sometimes people are moved around and sometimes they get promotions.

Who knows what would have happened at the new company? But the presumption is that with the company being bought out the end would have been bad.

I can understand that.  I left one company for another and ended up getting laid off 18 months later.

That experience taught me a lot:

I learned about a different area of HR.

I learned how to treat and not treat people in a layoff.

I learned what it is like to get laid off (it sucks) and realized that no method of a layoff is good except for doing it quickly and decisively.

I had to take stock in my financial life (this had all elements of good, bad and cringeworthy).

I learned what it is like to be unemployed in a bad economy.

I learned a lot about the generosity of people if you ask for help (btw that is the hardest part).

I met really smart and hard working people who couldn’t get a job because they didn’t fit into a strict background of defined experience in their field.

 

So I learned a lot and a bad experience ended up working out for me. This doesn’t mean you should blindly seize every opportunity that comes your way.  But realize that you can learn more about yourself in difficult and challenging circumstances.  Sometimes in our quest to have a perfect life and never make a mistake, we miss out on great opportunities.

 

If you stay in your comfortable, cozy job you may close off a road that leads to great opportunities in life.  And yes, even the negative stuff is an opportunity.

Don’t let the fear of the unknown drive your job search, career and life decisions.

 

It is easy to fear the unknown.  It is easy to stick with the evil you know.  It’s a lot harder to look at the circumstances, understand the potential consequences and decide to take the plunge anyway.