How to handle job rejection like a legend.

An emotion, a feeling, a fact of life, we all experience rejection in some situation or environment. The gut feeling of not being good enough, urgh its horrible. There will always be someone more qualified, suited, experienced..shiny! As human beings, we are extremely sensitive to rejection, we have a strong motivation to seek approval and acceptance. We must remember though that when faced with rejection, the power belongs to you, knowing we can act and turn this situation into something from nothing.
Job rejections are usually discovered through a short and sweet phone call or a rejection email. It can can be so disappointing to receive ‘the email’, especially if it is one of those standard rejection letters that do not delve into the reason for the rejection. We want to know what we did wrong — Was it me or you?!
So what can we do to get the positives out of the rejection. Use it to your advantage as fuel to continue your pursuit!
- Know that its not always you. You may have the personality and the brains but someone else may be better qualified or well connected with the people in the business. Additionally, the decision to pick someone else instead of you is not a choice against you — never take it personally. Most of which are beyond your control and as a result, you should not be too hard on yourself.
- Respond, don’t react. Most companies write standard rejection letters that do not offer any insights on why you particularly missed the opportunity. However, there is no harm in requesting for constructive feedback after rejection. You can do this by writing a short email to the recruiting manager or recruiter. Understanding the reason for you not getting the role helps you to not only process the fact, but to get better in the future.
- Maintain perspective. It is not personal and you should never doubt your own abilities. You are good enough, it just means that this opportunity wasn’t the right one for you. The organisation has moved in a direction that they think is more suited to them. It doesn’t mean you are a bad person, bad at your job or that you aren’t awesome — it just means that it wasn’t your time.
It’s important that you look at your job hunt as a process rather than one or two interviews that will hopefully have a positive result.
The job hunt: It’s a tough old game, and one you can’t win every time. But don’t let your chin drop in the face of rejection. Focus on the positives, learn the lessons and take appropriate action. Before you know, it’ll be a different set of words lighting up your screen…
And after all, when you’re in your rocking chair when you are long retired reflecting back on your life — it is pretty unlikely that you will still be annoyed at missing out on ‘that’ role!