How To Take Rejection
Hey y’all, thank you for tuning in. Today I am going to talk a little bit about rejection and how we shouldn’t let it affect our lives or careers.
Unfortunately, Rejection is a very large part of the working world. Especially today, most people don’t get every job they apply to. At this point, people are lucky to get an interview for the jobs they applied for. In this month alone, I have been rejected from over thirty positions. Most of which, didn’t even contact me directly with the rejection. The clearly automated messages can sometimes be more discouraging than the rejection itself. They often make us feel like we weren’t even worth the company’s time, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. No matter what the corporate world might think, you are important, and your ideas are valuable.
If you have a story, idea, or piece you believe in do not stop. Quitting is the antithesis of creation. When we sacrifice our dreams, we sacrifice a piece of our soul. When we attempt to create something we love, we pour our hearts and souls into it. When this effort is suddenly forced to stop, it can feel soul-shattering. However, that doesn’t stop giving up from feeling like the easy way.
More often than not, giving up can feel like the right thing to do. After all, one of the main signifiers of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing exact same way and expecting a different result. Giving up often presents itself as the easiest option. It would be easier to give up than to continue writing your novel. It would be easier to give up instead of going for a run like you promised yourself. It would be easier to give up than to learn another language. Yet, when you give up you also have to deal with the monster named regret.
Regret is an interesting beast, in more ways than one. Regret can inspire people to accomplish great and terrible things to avoid the feeling. So what is regret? It is many things, but it is most significantly the promise of what could have been. If you never see your ideas to fruition, you will always be thinking about an infinite number of now-impossible futures. Would that novel have been a best-seller? Would you feel better if you had taken that run? Would learning that new language provide you with a better understanding of the world around you? These are all questions someone who lives in regret will continue to ask themselves.
Therefore I conclude that it is better to live in rejection than regret. Rejection might block off the fast lane, but it doesn’t close the highway. Regret ends any possible chance of reaching your destination because you have to have given up to feel it. That is not to say that you should be completely insane and continue to apply for the same positions without first changing your approach. Insanity, or more tenacity in this case, can be useful but an easily overwhelming tool.
Being tenacious is great, but it can be blinding. If you continue to apply to the same jobs without altering your process, you will get the same result. The company that rejected you once, will likely do the same thing again for the same reason. That is not to say that the same company won’t reconsider you if you change some things about your process.
As I mentioned in the introduction, I am not an authority in receiving job offers. However, I do believe that my perspective could be somewhat meaningful nonetheless. If you are consistently rejected from the same roles, it’s time to alter your strategy. Is there a new skill you could learn to help you stand out? Who do you know in the industry? Have you considered pursuing higher education? If that isn’t an option, have you considered getting a certification in an online program? Did you write a cover letter? If it is a more artistic role, Do you have a portfolio? Even if it doesn’t have much content, having a portfolio is an easy way to stand out to your future employer. All of these questions are crucial to ask oneself before finishing an application. Sadly, all these factors combined are not enough to guarantee a position.
In today’s job market, experience is everything. Yet, it can be difficult for recent graduates to find even starting-level roles. Many job boards are filled with entry-level jobs that require at least two years of experience. Considering internships typically are less than a year, how can a recent graduate get the experience necessary for an “entry-level” job? The simple answer is, they can’t. However, a more complicated answer provides a little hope amongst the chaos.
Personal projects are one of the easiest ways to give yourself relevant experience while building your portfolio. Although this work comes without pay, it could eventually lead to a promising career. All of your previous work can and should be saved. If you don’t believe it’s worth going inside the portfolio, refine it until it is. I, unfortunately, have to deal with the consequences of deleting most of my previous work. I have created my own beast of regret, that I attempt to slay daily. Learn from my mistakes and keep all your work, even the things you believe aren’t worth anything. At the very least those pieces will show your progress.
In the end, the best way to deal with rejection is to never quit. Look rejection in the face, stare it down, and learn from it. Improve yourself, improve your work, improve your approach. Never be satisfied with defeat. Your ideas are worth being shown to the world. Your project can change lives. So long as what you are doing is positive and you put your heart into it, nothing should stop you. Continue pursuing your dreams and being the person we both know you can be. Rejection is only a roadblock, don’t let it stop you from reaching the destination of your dreams.
Stay Creative,
Russell
