Overcoming a Job Failure

By Marty Nemko

It was my first really professional job: school psychologist for the Tiburon/Belvedere schools. And I failed. I viewed too many teachers as lazy or dumb, too many special ed kids as hopeless. Not surprisingly, I was fired. And despite my being miserable on that job, the firing devastated me. It turned out to be a blessing. If I wasn't fired, I probably would have stuck around forever--I wouldn't have wanted to waste all those years of training. Instead, forced to find something else, I've since found work at which I'm much happier and more successful.