Job rejections

I shied away from those jobs I knew I wouldn't get in my younger days, but that was waaaay back when you would physically mail an application and I didn't feel like spending money I didn't have on a long shot. These days, what's it cost you to send an email?
As for going back, I have applied at one place I had left years before and gone back to another place I had left (well, been laid off from) months earlier. With the latter, there way about a three month honeymoon period where I was happy to be back, followed by several months of "why the hell did I do this." When they laid me off a second time, I was actually happy about it.

 

My biggest worry is always that my current boss will find out I'm looking. That might not have been a big deal a decade ago, but in layoff culture, shit is real.

 

I've worked for daily papers for about 15 years. For a while, on a beat cranking boatloads of copy. I've even got a APSE for breaking news.

Explored an opportunity to get out of the business, was going to take less money for a normal life. People thought I was making a huge mistake as it would look like a significant step down. The job was ghost writing blogs and copy for clients' websites: Here's the topic, you write it.

They called me. The guy I was up against, I hired a stringer, but we never had a full-time shot for him. He went to work for his in-laws.

He got the job, according to the letter, because he had a blog.

If I rubbed somebody the wrong way, fine. Just tell me you don't think I'm a good fit. If you're worried I'd leave in six months, say that. But because he posted to a blog three times a week and you think that makes him more qualified when all you want is, "report and make the client sound good," was insane to me.

I still feel like in some ways it was petty, but I couldn't even bring myself to reply to the email with even so much as an "OK, Thanks."

 

You just said it yourself. "Layoff culture". All's fair. They don't want employees looking elsewhere, then maybe they should be a more reliable employer.

 

In a recent conversation with my current boss, he said he can't fault anyone on our staff who considers/pursues opportunities outside the newspaper business and wouldn't hold it against me or anyone else who is looking elsewhere. But not everyone is that realistic or understanding.

 

About 10 years ago, I finished second in a two-horse race for a promotion that changed my life.

 

For the better, maybe?

Sometimes that happens. The thing you thought you wanted more than anything turns out not to be the best thing in retrospect.

Or, did you mean the promotion would've changed your life, and you didn't get it and it screwed things up? (If you don't mind my asking).

 

Good thread idea.

One of the best rejection calls was from the copy desk chief at the Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph-Herald. Phone interview went well, and they had me drive over for a day to meet everybody, lay out some test pages, copy editing, etc. Hit it off great with everyone I met in the newsroom and felt good about my chances.

A couple days later the copy desk chief called and apologized, because at the last minute the bean-counters had decided to eliminate the open position. He then vented with me for another five minutes about what a horrible business this is and how I should pursue job opportunities outside of it.

That was almost 14 years ago. Things have only gone downhill. But I'm still playing my violin on the Titanic.

 

Absolutely, for the better. Had I gotten that promotion I would've been stuck half way up the ladder with missing rungs to the top.

That rejection forced me to go back to school and get a finance degree. The day I graduated, my salary doubled and has since tripled. Today, rather than leading a section of three on the desk, I've led more than a hundred in one of the most noble efforts I can think of. My retirement is far more secure and my children are taken care of. And I can't ask for much more than that.