{"id":8781,"date":"2026-04-20T11:57:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8781"},"modified":"2026-04-20T11:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:58:44","slug":"career-lessons-from-the-stoics-1-grab-unexpected-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8781","title":{"rendered":"Career lessons from the Stoics 1: grab unexpected opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If your career path so far hasn’t looked the way you planned, you’re in good company. Student careers stories<\/a> show careers don\u2019t usually move in a straight line and there are many paths to a satisfying future. According to ancient Stoic philosophy, that might be exactly the point.<\/p>\n

Amor fati: embrace what comes your way<\/h4>\n

Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote about amor fati<\/em> – loosely translated as “love of fate.” It means choosing to work with life\u2019s unexpected detours as potential opportunities for positive change, rather than worrying about what could have been. Understanding your own values, motivations, interests and strengths<\/a> really helps you spot those unexpected opportunities when they appear.<\/p>\n

Tell your story confidently, with all its twists and turns<\/h4>\n

Many students worry that their CV tells the wrong story – that employment gaps or career changes need explaining away. Learn from the Stoics: these things aren’t weaknesses in your story, but the things which make it interesting to employers. Employers are interested in candidates with varied experiences. Learn to talk about the twists and turns of your journey<\/a> so far with confidence. No apologies necessary. Hear more about how to address employment gaps<\/a> in our recorded webinar.<\/p>\n

Identify what you\u2019ve learned<\/h4>\n

Look at your CV or career history and pick out an experience that you’d normally underplay or feel uncertain about. Ask yourself \u2018what did this actually require of me? What did I learn that I couldn’t have learned any other way?’<\/em> Dealing with the unexpected has probably given you more strengths than you expected.<\/p>\n

\"OUPenny Beecroft is an OU Careers and Employability Consultant specialising in supporting students in Wales. Penny helps students navigate their futures, figure out their goals and build their confidence through one-to-one careers consultations and by designing career learning events and resources for the OU. Explore the rest of the Careers Stories page for more articles from the Careers and Employability Services team.<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Read the other articles in our Career lessons from the Stoics series – don\u2019t wait \u2013 take the next step now and control what you can, understand what you can\u2019t<\/a>.<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If your career path so far hasn’t looked the way you planned, you’re in good company. Student careers stories show careers don\u2019t usually move in a straight line and there are many paths to a satisfying future. According to ancient Stoic philosophy, that might be exactly the point. Amor fati: embrace what comes your way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[115],"class_list":["post-8781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-planning","tag-career-lessons-from-the-stoics-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8781"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8794,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8781\/revisions\/8794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}