Whether being rejected from a new job or a promotion, it is never fun to hear that someone else got the position you were vying for. This rejection can have major negative impacts on one’s self-esteem and may affect their job performance. However, in the wake of rejection, you should be putting even more effort towards proving yourself in your career and finding ways to excel. Learn how to bounce back from disappointment and continue chasing after your career goals with the following practical steps:
Review Your Resume
Looking over your resume and making necessary changes is a great way to deal with job rejection. It can be difficult to self-analyze, but it is important to identify any gaps in your resume and revise it to show the data-driven results you’ve achieved throughout your past experiences. There are countless resume tips available on the web for job seekers to use to enhance their career bios.
Ask the Interviewer to Keep You in Mind for Future Opportunities
When you’ve been rejected for a job, it is easy to think the company is uninterested in you and cannot use you any further. This is not true, however. The position was most likely filled by someone the company saw more fit for the role, or perhaps by someone who had strong connections to the hiring staff. For you to have had made it into the interview process, the organization obviously saw something in you that they liked.
If you enjoyed the interview process and could envision yourself at the company, don’t be embarrassed to ask them to consider you for future opportunities. You never know when a position may pop up that they will find you better suited for. Either way, you now have connections to the company from the interviewing process and can potentially use that to your advantage.
Keep Searching for Opportunities
Facing job rejections, especially if it’s a repetitive occurrence, can be extremely defeating. You may feel unmotivated to continue job searching. However, you cannot allow yourself to get into a downward spiral of feeling like a failure. Ultimately, you have to remain hopeful that there is something better suited for you out there. Continue using job platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed, and do not forget the importance of networking. Eventually, something will come along, and you’ll be thankful you did not give up.
Don’t Take it Too Personal
Ultimately, you have to remember it was most likely not anything personal that prevented you from being hired. It is so easy to think, “Wow, they must not have liked my personality. I guess I wasn’t good enough for them.” This thinking will get you nowhere in your career. Some of the most successful business leaders have faced immense rejection in their past. But rather than taking it too personally, they used it as a motivation to continue looking for opportunities and continue working on their own skills. In the end, you have to remember what is out of your control and use it as an incentive to continue pushing forward.