Rebounding from a career setback.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

It's hard to avoid the occasional letdown as you climb your way up the corporate ladder. Nevertheless, Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps, an international temporary staffing service for accounting, finance, and bookkeeping professionals, and author of Managing Your Career for Dummies, points out that there are steps you can take to ease your emotional stress and quickly get your career back on track. In fact, you may even benefit in the long run, he maintains.

"Most successful businesspeople have run into their fair share of obstacles" he says. "The key is that they've turned those experiences into learning opportunities" Messmer offers the following suggestions for turning a step back into a step forward:

* Take time to recover. Allow yourself time to deal with the emotional response you may feel--such as anger or disappointment--before making your next move.

* Reflect on the situation. Ask yourself questions about what happened, such as "What external factors impacted the outcome? What...