Building Resilience When Job Seeking

By Cord Harper, CEO of Endeavor Agency

May 15, 2024

So you lost out on the job in your last interview. And maybe the last several. Sometimes your interviews start off on the wrong foot and it feels like you’re behind your fellow interviewees. You feel your goal of a landing a new job slipping away. After the interview, you're dejected and maybe think of quitting your job search, but you must press on.

The really hard part is forgetting about the last interview and moving on to the next. This is where building resilience and learning from your mistakes come into play. You see resilience on display every week at sporting events. One team gets on a roll and the other team can’t seem to do anything right. From all aspects they appear to be very evenly matched. However, one team has some negative energy getting in its way, but they figure out a way to get rid of the negative energy and stage a comeback.

Clear your mind. Forget about the last interview. Focus only on the next one. If you go back to fundamentals, you can turn things around. But, if you constantly relive the last failure in your mind, it will repeat itself over and over. Building resilience to overcome challenges will greatly benefit you.

Often it requires that inspirational leader to help clear the fog. The Kansas City Chiefs were down 24-0 in the first quarter in their playoff game against the Houston Texans in January 2020. Their leader, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, helped them refocus to move on to the next play, and then the next play, and so on. They came back, led at halftime, and won by 20 points, 51-31.


NBA teams regularly complete comebacks of 20+ points in the regular season and postseason, with the biggest comeback of the 2023-2024 season being 30 points by the Atlanta Hawks over the Boston Celtics. These teams identify the problems facing them in-game, develop a solution, and then win the game, despite being down so much at one point.

Or, as Ted Lasso might say, “Be a goldfish.”

Who helps you break the cycle of disappointment and refocus on fundamentals? Endeavor’s clients have our agents in their corner to help them face any career challenge, or to just talk to for support. Reach out and connect with Endeavor Agency to see if we can help you land your first or next executive role.

About Endeavor Agency


Endeavor Agency is the nation’s leading company helping individual executives, VPs, senior managers, professionals, and physicians find the jobs they truly want. Our additional resources, expertise, and career change specialists help our clients uncover more and better job opportunities than what they could access on their own.


Endeavor Agency helps rebrand clients to effectively communicate their value throughout the interview process and increase their odds dramatically of winning offers. Additionally, Endeavor Agency helps clients achieve better results in negotiating the terms of their employment agreements.


Endeavor Agency also provides executive coaching, outplacement services, and business consulting services. Endeavor can also help guide executives focused on the private equity and venture capital market segments.

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