Starting Out: When One Door Closes...
Losing a job for the first time can be an anxiety-laden milestone for twentysomethings. But it can also be an opportunity to rethink your course, and possibly make changes, before you've proceeded very far on a career path.</br></br>A job loss in March was a "bittersweet" experience for 27-year-old Erin Suhy, who had been working as a development assistant for a nonprofit organization. "I lost income and the potential to work in a field that I respect," she says, but "the job wasn't challenging and it made me miserable."</br></br>Since then, the New York resident has worked on and off doing administrative work and is currently collecting unemployment insurance while considering post-graduate certificate programs in Web design. She's also thinking about moving. "This time has given me the opportunity to think about what I really want out of life," she says.</br></br>However, the worst part of being unemployed is feeling insecure, she says, and constantly wondering "am I making the right decisions?"</br></br>Twentysomethings often agonize over every career move. "They feel like their choice has to be momentous," says Larry Root, a professor of social work at the University of Michigan. And when a job doesn't work out, he says, it "can be hard psychologically," leading to low self-esteem, mental stress and feelings of inadequacy.