Poll: How do you take rejection?

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I actually take it rather personally. I have spent a long time getting to the point I am now in life, and I am also a trained interviewer for job interviews, so I know the systems inside out... This means that I know, by general standards, that my applications are pretty good, and when I interview I have a good idea how it went.

My biggest strengths are the fact that I am always positive, and that I get on well with others, so I do take it close to heart when after all this I am not selected for a job that I thought I could get. As I know the system I have been able to tell in the past that I have been qualified for the job, and that the reason I wasn't selected was more personality based... and this makes me sad!

Oh well... I haven't had to be interviewed for a long while now, and things can only get better for the next time I need to! Although at the current rate that is actually going to be in at least 2021 when my contract runs out!!

 

[MrHide-Patten]

I don't give a fuck and file in the deatils of the attempt in my Centrelink Job Seekers guide and pick up 500 bucks every fortnight.

 

[Shinsei-J]

Depends on the job but most of the time I don't get to heart broken.
Though there was this one job last year that was practically my dream.
I got to the final stage of selection between me and this other guy but they chose him instead even though I was a much better choice for the job in my objective opinion, he's not bad at it but I would have gone much further.
Spent the next month depressed and just kind of dragging myself around.

 

[Bestival]

Never really applied to a place that would say no. Grunt work is awesome, they'll take anyone that can tie their own shoelaces!
But when my contract wasn't extended once, I didn't care one bit. My only reaction was pretty much "Sweet, vacation!". Then I bummed around at home for a while, and eventually got a new shitty dead end job pretty easily.

I suppose it must get pretty soul crushing when you went to college/university for like 10 years, worked your ass off, and then get told time and time again that there's no work for you.

 

[Ickorus]

If they actually respond to my application with a rejection I'm OK with it.

I get very annoyed when they don't even bother doing that.

 

[Not Matt]

never really cared too much about it. if it happens. it happens.
i am honestly a little freaked out by myself. when my last relationship went to hell behind my back my reaction was 15 minutes of sadness and then.......nothing. no grief, no opinion, no sorrow, no anything. i felt completely neutral about it. i do not think that's normal

 

[purplecactus]

I do get bothered a little, but that's more to do with my personality than thinking they're doing it to deliberately spite me. The way I keep reminding myself to look at it is this: They need the closest to the best that they can get for it, and if I don't fit that description then it'd be a waste of time hiring me anyway.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I apply for everything assuming that I'm probably not gonna get it.

There's just too many things to go wrong. You could be considered under-qualified, qualified but under-experienced, over-qualified to the point where they don't believe you'll stick with it. The interviewer could just not personally like you. You could simply get lost in the ridiculously large pool of applicants that is applying for any and all positions.

I won't take any of it personally. If anything, I'm just a little frustrated that I wasted time on something that came to nothing.

 

[HoneyVision]

I don't believe anyone who says that they're "not bothered" at all. We all have a natural negative reaction to rejection. Nothing wrong with that. The tricky part is how you deal with it.

I'm really competitive so rejection for me is just another step forward. You learn much more from your failures than you do from your successes.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's not great, but not that bad.

It's better than not getting a reply, cause then you don't know if they've rejected you, or just not got around to messaging you yet.

 

[Angie7F]

I get hurt, but only a little bit.
I know it is like dating.
You mey be the best catch ever but that doesnt mean that you are the right match.
So I just move on hoping that I get a better offer.

 

[Mrkillhappy]

Me I get a little hurt but I get over it quickly. I will usually move on and forget about it in like an hour.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Seeing how I was umemployed for a while, I didn't get bother by it most of the time.
I mean when you apply for a vacancy or got an interview, you should never have high expectation/ hope that it will be successful or always view all possible outcomes including the rejection.
The only time I do feel glump down are the vacancies that I felt were perfect for me or when I thought the interview went very well.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

I take it the good ol' fashioned way.

Spoiler: bottom's up

 

[MetalMagpie]

Yeah, I especially hate the ones who say "You'll hear from us within X days/weeks" when what they really means is "You'll hear from us within X days/weeks if we want you". At least some honesty would be nice.

When I applied to HP, the guy who did my telephone interview specifically said I'd hear from them either way within 7 days. Three months later, I decided their continued silence was probably a "no". Six months later, I got a phone call asking me to come in for a face-to-face interview. By that time, I already had a job!

Even if I hadn't, I don't think I'd have worked for them anyway. A company that treats potential employees like that probably doesn't treat its actual employees all that well either.

See, when they do that, it is a kind of test. If you call back on the 8th day to check with them, they will usually think that you really want the job more than the others if you took the time to follow up. If they have already hired someone else and didn't call you back either way, they are scum. But it has worked twice for me, so I think I am starting to see a pattern there.

I sent three follow-up emails in the first couple of months and got no reply to any of them. As there wasn't a phone number available for recruitment, I just gave up after that.

But I agree that pressing people for a response is important. Whenever someone tells me they'll get back to me about something, I always calendar forward a day to chase them up. I've had landlords who only did things after the third or fourth reminder and was chasing my deposit for my last place for almost a year!

 

[MopBox]

By screaming and flailing my arms around a bit.

 

[Rastien]

It actually triggers a massive downward depressive spiral in myself due to being bi-polar not fun BUT that doesn't stop me from trying! gotta ride the highs and suffer the lows as my old man said if you fling enough shit at a wall some of it will stick.

Yes i'm on a high at the moment when i'm on a low i would say something completely different and defeatist scumbag brain.

 

[gazumped]

The way the job market is in the UK at the moment, it's hard to take it personally.

A person I know quit her job as an admin worker the other day (because she was moving) and there were over 200 applications for her job. From what I've been reading in articles and blogs recently, that's not an uncommon number for job openings in London right now - outside of London where there are less jobs the competition is even higher.

So, if I'm not accepted for a job, I can't take it too hard that one of the couple of hundred other applicants was more suited to it than me.

 

[Jordi]

Being denied the job doesn't bother me so much. What I really hate is being told "We're not hiring, but you can always put in an application." I have NEVER seen anyone go through those applications once they are ready to hire. They just put out a 'Help Wanted' and start taking more and look through those. So it's really saying "We're not hiring, but feel free to waste your time because you're desperate." I hate that.

When I was studying for my master's degree I applied for an internship at Google. After a couple of months (I think) I got a fairly standard e-mail back saying they didn't have anything for me, but that they'd keep my resume on file. Most companies seem to do this, and to me it always sounded like "we're keeping your resume... in the garbage bin".

Fast forward 3 or so years, and out of the blue I get contacted by a recruiter for Google who wants me to apply for a job. Turns out they actually use that backlog. I ended up not getting that job, but I thought it was pretty cool that they asked me to apply anyway.

I know this isn't exactly the same as asking someone to apply to no job openings since I already applied, but still, doing so would have put you in that same "applicants file" and give you a nonzero chance of being contacted in the future.

OT: I'd say I generally deal badly with rejection, but some situations are worse than others. Basically it depends on how badly I wanted something, how personal it is, my level of investment and my expectations. Getting rejected by Google: pretty good experience (they fly you out and everything). Getting rejected by a girl: deeply depressing.