Getting a "no" for the first time

this may sound corny, but the sting of all those rejections - and like many here, I've endured my share - is washed away when someone makes you an offer. Yet even that comes with its share of issues, such as where to live, when should I move, can I break my lease, can I survive on what they're paying, etc.

But everyone goes through this. It sucks. But the exhiliration of getting hired easily trumps the pain of getting rejected.

 

One bit of advice that I have to offer is this:

Each time that you're rejected, pull out your copy of the resume, the cover letter and the clips that you sent.

Spend about 20 minutes looking over everything that you sent and look critically for anything that might have caused them to toss it in the trash. If you make a few improvements each time, it'll increase your chances of getting an interview. That way you get a positive out of a negative.

 

Yeah, but some times there's nothing you could have done to get a job. Maybe the paper didn't want to fly someone in for an interview, or pay a lot for moving expenses. Maybe someone who was a friend-of-a-friend with the hiring editor applied. Maybe a solid reporter at one of the paper's bureaus or a smaller paper in the chain wanted that job. Maybe a real f'n stud applied for the job. You can't wallow in the fact that you got turned down for a job. Just move on. And it's like they said....you'll forget about that rejection from The Podunk Press the minute you get a job.

 

i saved the rejection notes as motivation. pull em out once a year when i feel like i've had a lull in production/quality.

 

You use to be able to get a free drink for every rejection letter you had at Sully's Bar in Peoria, Ill.

I had plenty of engineering buddies who saved up their rejection letters for Thursday nights. Fucking bastards making three times what I make.

 

I just recently had to do this and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Other people are telling me, "hey, it happens." I guess I wouldn't be too happy if someone did it to me, but it does happen.

 

Here we go again.

As an SE, I break it down like this: if you interview with us and we go in another direction, I'm calling you to talk about it (if you want some feedback...if not, it's still better than a form letter and worth my time to thank you for yours). But if you are one of the hundreds of applicants we usually receive for a position, chances are there isn't going to be any "thanks but no thanks" letters if you were never a candidate. And no, I don't have an assistant who can handle them. (Just recalling previous debates about this topic.)

As far as rejection letters go, the most you'll ever get is in trying to get a book published. Good Lord...I think they killed half a forest after my last round of queries.

 

I've gotten a few; one really sticks in my craw.

I'm even going to name the paper, because if I leave out the era, it's not going to point fingers at any one individual.

Quite a few years back, but recent enough that I had established reasonable credentials, I wrote a letter to the Journal-Constitution about a job it had open (not just a cold call "You have anything for me?"). I knew one of the prominent people in the hiring process there pretty well from APSE stuff. But there were several involved, so again, this isn't going to throw anybody specific under my bus here.

My rejection was a form letter from the personnel department, the typical "we don't have anything for you right now, but we'll keep your resume on file" bullshit. Not a word from the actual sports department, not even the person I knew.

I wound up fine, but I really felt that one was handled badly under all the circumstances.

(One semi-aside: I once got one from a paper in the Northeast that was looking for a sports editor; I'll never know what it said exactly, though. When I mentioned to my girlfriend at the time that I wondered why I hadn't heard from the Northeast Bugle about its sports editor job, she said, "Oh, they hired somebody else. You got that letter a few weeks ago, but since you didn't get the job, I just threw it out.")

 

In the early 1990s, I applied for an SE's job in the Midwest and finished second in the race.

The same paper hired an SE and ASE in 1994 or so -- and this time, I was told I had finished third.

Me: "Just so I understand my situation here, if you were hiring 500,000 people, is it reasonable for me to assume that I would finish 500,001st?"

Even the hiring editor had to laugh at that one.

 

Hah -- not much is making me laugh since I'm still waiting for my "no," but that last one did.

 

Alright, so, after all that's said and done, I actually GOT this job ... so the wait was worth it. Phew.

 

The gold standard for What Not to Do.