Job rejection isn't a roadblock; it's a strategic pivot. Every 'no' is market intelligence that helps you refine your personal brand and career trajectory. Your resilience transforms setbacks into powerful opportunities for professional growth and future success.
Here are 6 steps that will help you rebound strongly from stinging job search rejection:
1. Acknowledge your pain
It's ok not to be ok. Glossing over your hurt and letting the pain of rejection fester, rather than processing it, won’t help you. Confide in trusted friends, speak with a therapist, and/or chat with an executive advisor about your feelings to process them. Unprocessed feelings WILL carry over to your next interview…and no one wants that, least of all you.
2. Do something nice for yourself
This is different for everyone. Whatever “treating yourself well” looks like for you, treat yourself to something that will make you feel good about you again. Some ideas might be: a massage, a nice dinner with people who uplift you, an athletic event to work out the angst...but for many people, self-care might just be a tech-less night binge watching your favorite show to forget about life for a while.
3. Assess your approach, but don't change it just yet
Too many executives think if they were rejected that something is wrong with them or their approach. And often it’s not the case. Job rejection is most often due to the values of the organization not being in alignment with yours—which means you dodged a bullet. So with the help of a job landing consultant, assess what you did right and if something needs to be shifted in your executive presence—but don’t automatically change your approach because someone rejected you. You may be making a change that will prevent your target employers from finding you.
4. In absence of concrete evidence, don’t hurt yourself with assumptions
If you're not 100% sure about why you were rejected, don't fill in the blanks with negative, unfounded assumptions. ”It must be because I’m old…it’s probably because of _<insert negative thought here>_”. If you don't have hard evidence to support these thoughts, let them go. Regularly check in with others you trust who can keep you from going down this rabbit hole.
5. Take a break
Temporarily press pause on your search, if you can. Rejection stings, but time does heal. And twenty years from now, you won’t remember if you took a day or a week off from your job search. So give yourself time to heal, if you need it. Listen to your heart, body, and mind.
6. Get back at it in kind places
Take the rest you need, and jump back into the search feeling refreshed and ready. And start with kind places. Call people you know to network where you will be well received. Start there. I advise you not to begin with your biggest risk when you are coming back from a painful rejection. Work your way back up to reaching out to people you don’t know.
Step 6 is by far the hardest, but your ability to bounce back from rejection is just as important to your search as any credential or qualification on your resume.
If you need help bouncing back into your search, reach out to us below. We are here for you.
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