How To Handle Rejection When Starting a New Career Or When Looking For a Job
If you have been preparing for a job role for a long time, and you are suddenly rejected, it will affect you badly. According to Glassdoor, only 1 in 250 people get the job. This means that 249 people have to deal with the cascading effects of rejection.
However, you don’t always have to feel bad. If you are already prepared, dealing with rejection may become easier. Let’s discuss how you can handle rejection while searching for a job or even when trying to change career paths. Check out some tips for staying motivated during your job search.
1. Stop stressing and find fault
Once the grieving period is over, try to think rationally. Find out what went wrong. If you prepared diligently for this role but were turned down, you deserve a few details. So pick up the phone or email the hiring manager and ask them for some explanation. Ask him clear questions.
If the recruitment process includes multiple stages, review each stage and evaluate your performance. Understand where your performance was not up to par. Ask yourself, what could you have done differently.
Once you have collected all the reviews and analyzed everything, identify the cause of your frustration. Finally, you have to work on improving every point that might be the reason for the rejection. Develop or improve skills that, if you had them, could have earned you the job.
You can also take offline classes if time permits, or online classes, using platforms like Udemy, Coursera, or The Great Courses to develop specific skills that are in demand. Check out Want to learn something new? The best ways to learn great skills from home.
2. Developing a professional development plan
Sometimes, even if you are great at what you do, you may still get rejected. And now you’re wondering why this is happening to me? Well, the reasons here might be related to some personality traits or those specific skills that are required for the job like good communication skills or tremendous confidence, etc., that you might be lacking.
For example, if you are applying for the position of Human Resources Manager, your lack of empathy or organizational skills could be a complete ruin for your opportunity.
The best approach to such a situation is to find out what characteristics you must have for the job you are applying for and create a complete plan for its development.
The following resources can be helpful.
Online lessons
If you need some specific skills for a job, you may want to do some research. Even though it is the beginning of your career, and you have little time to learn in the field, these online courses may help you.
- Personal Transformation Course for Complete Personal Development (Beginners).
- Performance Under Pressure — The Complete Course (Intermediate Learners).
Mindbloom.com
Mindbloom is a great platform that can help you in your professional development process. All you have to do is create a tree with multiple branches representing the attributes you are improving. Likewise, your inspiration and actions will be like sun and water.
The only way for your tree to flourish is to constantly improve the personality traits you are working on.
3. Refine your approach
If you applied for a job a long time ago and the results weren’t very impressive, consider refining your job search. This is especially true if this is the beginning of your career.
Perhaps what you are looking for is far from what you really aspire to. Your lack of excitement, enjoyment, and desire for the job also makes some of the signs easily visible. Believe it or not, but the person sitting across from the table during interviews can smell these things from miles away.
If this is the case, consider optimizing your job search.
- Instead of applying to all positions, decide what kind of job you really want — contract or full-time?
- Get a clear idea of ​​the compensation you want for this type of work.
- Search for a job by the content of its duties rather than by its title. You may find yourself qualified for more jobs than you thought.
- You have to do more. Instead of sending out one resume as standard, adjust it for each job you’re applying for.
- If you only spend two hours a day looking for a job, increase the duration by an hour or two.
4. Recognizing that it is not personal
As harsh as it may feel, rejection is nothing but personal and not about you.
People tend to put everything that hurts in the category of bad things. The same goes for rejection. It’s a really sad thing, which makes everyone think negatively about it. Sometimes this goes further to the point of questioning his abilities.
This is why it is imperative that you understand that it is not always about you. For example, often the interviewer decides to make some changes at the last minute, wants someone local to work for the company, or finds a candidate who shares personal interests. Now, these things have nothing to do with you or your ability to perform the work.
So, stop berating yourself. Only work on the things you can realistically change or improve. For example, if you were rejected because of your mistake, such as submitting the wrong resume, not researching the company in advance, showing up late, etc.
5. Manage the negative response and your expectations
We all have the ability to think negatively whenever something simple bad happens to us. We begin to act as if the entire universe is plotting to make our lives miserable. Although we all know that this could not be further from the truth.
So stop making vague sentences like, this always happens to me. I will never do that. why me?
Instead, reformulate these statements into something that gives you direction or a conclusion. For example:
- What are the exact reasons why the company rejected me?
- What traits does the person being hired possess? Is there any way I can improve it? Is it actually necessary for the job?
- If yes, how can I build those skills?
- There are a thousand companies in my country. I am sure that some of them will need my services. I just have to try harder.
Aside from all this, even if you worked hard for a job interview, don’t just sit around waiting for the results. Instead, keep applying. Sometimes our over-belief in something can be dangerous if the results are not as expected.
So, don’t do that to yourself. Be 95% positive, but be prepared for the 5% if things take a different direction. Check out the best websites for creating your resume before you start your job search.
6. Prepare yourself mentally
When all is said and done, you still have to deal with your current situation. One of the best ways to deal with job rejection is to prepare yourself mentally. Admit that even if you get rejected, you are better than most people who don’t even try.
Your refusal means that you are stepping out of your comfort zone and taking steps towards your goal. And it’s okay to fail. Google the names of all the successful people who have ruled the world or have ever had in their time and you will find that they have failed endlessly at some point.
Your refusal does not identify you. One company or one person does not determine your ability to achieve something or work in a particular industry.
Here are some ways to use your phone to help you be mentally strong:
- Follow positive people on social networks.
- Use apps like Happify, Calm, or BetterHelp.
At the end of the day, it’s all about staying strong, mentally, spiritually, and physically.
Everyone has their own way of dealing with stress or difficult situations. So do what you want for a while, but keep it from overwhelming you. Use the tips outlined here to handle rejection and handle it the best way. You can now check out the best unique ways to stand out during a job interview.