Seeing Job Rejections in the Positive ways.

What is this Rejection?

Rejection is an act of refusing to accept, use, or believe someone or something according to the Cambridge dictionary definition. Rejections can come in different forms, social rejections where an individual is deliberately rejected from social relationships, romantic rejection, job rejection, and others. A person can be rejected by individuals, an entire group of people, or an organization.

I’ll like to believe that not all rejections are associated with a reason, some might be spun out of pure sentiment or dislike. However, taking a step backward to know the reason for the rejection and working on it will reduce the chance of getting rejected again in the future.

In this article I’ll be focusing more on job rejections, as I mentioned earlier that rejections can come in many forms, for example in jobs application, it might be the company doesn’t believe the applicant can do what they say they can or the candidate is not a cultural fit, etc, that is why it is always a good thing and important to ask for feedback’s anytime there is a rejection if theirs an opportunity to get one.

Rejections can be so demoralizing but seeing them in a positive way is a big plus. Currently, on the job search, I remember the first few weeks after receiving so many rejections I was down & depressed for days. I even thought of giving up but after so many days and conversations with friends and a career coach, I realized that getting rejected is part of the process and that it is not personal.

A Blessing in Disguise

There is a blessing in receiving a no, as much as it hurts, sometimes it can mean not now, a redirection, or an opportunity to check the process and see what is working and what is not. Nature can even be helping you in dodging a bullet of a bad working environment. For example, I noticed from Google Analytics that most visits to my portfolio originated from mobile phones and this allows me to focus on improving the mobile responsiveness of the portfolio, before then the mobile view wasn’t that responsive enough. As a result of their experience while visiting it doesn’t lead to a call for a phone screen interview. The blessing here is that had it meant I don’t receive the nos I won’t get to know the mobile responsiveness is a mess and wouldn’t know some of the reasons I was getting the rejections.

I also noticed I wasn’t putting out qualities applications, I was just focused on applying for as many jobs as I can to get the numbers up. Blindly following the saying that a Job search is a numbers game and not putting too much thought into the application materials e.g tailoring the resume to suit the job role, and writing bespoke cover letters that makes me stand out. I remembered while using ATS optimization to check the resume I also found out that having the job title match the role title on the resume also increases the likeliness of being shortlisted for an interview.

The above examples are just a few of the iterations but the point is rejections allow us to re-evaluate the process if seen in a positive way. A dev colleague said, receiving NOs is part of the process and set him up for better future opportunities which I agreed.

Seeing rejections as a way to make a critical analysis of the process will help through the job search period and help build some resilience and mental toughness, even if it is not job-related, it might be anything that is more personal. As software development is done in iteration so is job searching, you have to continue to deduce what works, and what does not and continue to fine-tune until you receive that one YES.

As of the time of writing this post, I’m still on the job search, but trying to share my story with anyone trying to give up after receiving so many rejections, to see receiving NO as part of the process and a way to see what is working and what is not. Having this information gives you the option to make better decisions for future applications.

Things to do that can help through the process

These are things I have applied and have worked for me till now, please I’m not an expert or claiming to be one in this area I’m just trying to help anyone going through the same process. Below are a few of the possible things that can be applied

• Adopting a growth mindset
  — A helpful book called Mindset by Dr. Carol .S. Dweck
  — Not to take the rejection personally, it is a common thing for job searchers.
  — Don’t allow your mind to convince you after failure that you can’t succeed.
  — Understand rejections are extremely painful.
  — Be mindful of what you tell yourself after a rejection
  — When you get a rejection, the first thing to do is to revive yourself.
• Have a professional review of application materials.
• Having a mentor or a career coach: Join platforms like mentorColor & coachio to find a mentor for career guidance.
• Join communities of like-minded where you can share your struggles & success with.
• Take a break if need be and come back refreshed.

We all going to bag that Offer soon. Rooting for y’all.

And there you have it, I hope by my little story I can inspire you to get going again.

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Thanks for reading.