Break out your pencil skirts and black pumps and get your resume up-to-date, because it’s that time of year again — hiring season. Students are frantically looking for another internship to set them apart, recent grads are applying everywhere they can to show that their degree is worth something and everyone is looking for a part-time job to get a little extra cash. No matter where you are in this applying process, there’s nothing more discouraging than putting your all into the application, getting an interview and nailing it, but getting that “Thanks for your interest, but we’re going to go in a different direction” email. It’s okay to be upset, and it’s okay to panic about how you’re going to get any money; we’ve all been there. Every person in the workforce, be it a 16-year-old who needs gas money or a 35-year-old who needs an entry-level job, has felt the cold, harsh sting that manifests itself in the form of getting turned down from a job.Â
Job rejection can come in many different forms — there’s the dreaded email, saying “Thank you for your interest, but…”; there’s the even worse phone call, because you have to listen to your dreams getting dashed; but worst of all is not getting any type of response at all. This is probably the most discouraging, because this can seem like you weren’t even worth the time it took to type a “we’re going with a different candidate” email. No matter the type, all types of job rejection sting a little; after a string of them, you start to think you must be terrible at interviews or applications and you’ll just never get hired and live forever in a box under a bridge, jobless and broke.Â
While it may seem tempting, it’s important not to let rejection get to you. Yes, it stings like anything; especially when you interviewed for your dream job, nailed the interview but still didn’t get it. In this instance, or after the word “no” seems to be imprinted in your brain forever, it’s okay to curl up in bed with some ice cream for a few days — but not forever. After a proper amount of time for mourning that job, you’ve got to get back out there. Send your resume everywhere you can, and know that you probably won’t ever hear back from some of those people, and that is totally okay. People get turned down all the time, and that just means that that job was not meant for you, no matter how badly you wanted it. When the right job comes around, you’ll know it, and you’ll look back on all the times you interviewed with no success and know that those times made you a stronger interviewee and a stronger employee.
Remind yourself that you are so much more than what your resume says about you — you cannot be defined by two pages of work experience, related skills and education. You are not just a working machine — you’re a person who is so much more than that. Your resume doesn’t reveal your passions, your sense of humor, your heart or how much of a hard worker you are. Keep that in mind the next time you get turned down from a job. Keep your head up; they don’t know what they’re missing out on.Â
Images: cover photo, 1, 2, 3