Reflections on Courage in the Job Search

Have you ever thought about how much courage it takes to be in a job search?

Last weekend I attended Renaissance Conference—a gathering for creatives started by Saint Church in London and hosted for the first time in San Francisco by my church, Reality.

The talk that stayed with me most came from Ruthie Kim, who highlighted courage in three ways:

☝🏽 The courage to start

We often think confidence is the prerequisite to beginning.

But confidence is what you get after you’ve done something many times.

Which means the real prerequisite is courage.

Begin before confidence shows up.

✌🏽 The courage to stay

It takes courage to stay long enough with pain to heal.

The creative life (and the job search!) is full of what she called micro-griefs—disappointments, setbacks, quiet losses.

As Walter Brueggemann writes: "Weeping permits newness."

👌🏽 The courage to share

The courage to be seen.

Sometimes we sabotage momentum by nonchalantly moving the goalposts—waiting until something is “better” before we share it.

But as Jon Acuff says: "Your ability to do awesome things is directly proportional to your willingness to be criticized by people who don’t understand them."

Start.

Stay.

Share.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized this is also the rhythm of a job search.

Start conversations before you feel ready.

Stay when rejection or silence shows up.

Share your story—even when being seen feels vulnerable.

Most people think job searching is only about strategy. 😉

But it's also about courage.

And most people underestimate how much courage it actually takes.

I’m curious. Which of these feels (or has felt) hardest? Starting, staying, or sharing?