Rejection (finding that new job)

Yeah, been there, done that.

I estimate that between 60-70 percent of my applications (email, online, paper) I never get so much as a "thank you for your application" in response. It just disappears into the cyber black hole somewhere.

The unfortunate reality is that there are more seekers than jobs right now in just about every field. Fox News did a story on openings for firefighters jobs in Miami. Got 750 responses for 35 openings. People camping out overnight and such to get in line.

At some point, you just have to say "look it ain't me, it's the economy" and realize it does no good to beat your head against a wall over it. Like someone else said, the emotional roller coaster will kill you.

I have actually wondered whether just putting the whole search on hold for a year might be the best idea. Nothing seems to be happening at the moment.

 

Make of this what you will, even if it's the typical silly sarcasm:

Some years ago I was called by an acquaintance at SI to see if I was interested in a certain job. Of course. SI had truly been my dream job since I was about 14. I did some samples, went well; went to NY for the whole gamut of interviews, went well, then was told they were interested and would get back to me. This was early December.

About two weeks later, right before Christmas, I get a call from my mom that doctor has spotted a growth in her that looks suspiciously cancerous. She is scheduled to get an MRI, I think it was, in a few days to see what course of action to take.

I'm driving home from work that night and it hits me like a sledgehammer: if you had a choice, the SI job or your mom being okay, which would you take? No question about it---a cancer-free mom, and I even spoke that aloud, although no one else in the car.

Next day I got a call from my SI guy telling me I didn't get the job, that they had given it to some other guy. I was pretty much devastated.

That night I think it was, I get a call from my folks telling me my mom is clear. Nothing. Doctors could not find a thing, no trace of whatever it was, telling her they were baffled, that this rarely happens at this point of testing.

Life goes on.

 

Clutch,

I am sure I'm not breaking any news here, but you are a very lucky man. I take any of my relatives and family's health over my career any day. I would work at McDonald's or sweeping floors as long as my mom is healthy. Thank God, buddy.

 

Great story. Great morale there. If I never cover another freakin game in my life, there are other things in life to care about.

 

Fortunately, I haven't had to deal with difficult situations like family health as a few of you had. I hope I never have to. Glad you are all OK.

I'm just focused on getting out of this damn profession and getting a job that I know I deserve. Rejection hurts more when your current job blows. But I'm also motivated to keep searching.

 

Saw a story on the morning news shows stating over 500,000 more jobs lost in US in January.

 

Yeah, no doubt rejection comes more often in these times. Rejection in the fact that there aren't many openings, but also rejection because companies are being some stingy and nit-picky with their hiring processes.

 

Nitpitcky is one thing ... but remember, there are a lot of very talented people out there looking for jobs.

 

That's exactly the point. It is a buyer's market right now. More applicants than jobs.

i know this has been stated elsewhere, but it bears repeating: it's not ONLY the media industry that is experiencing this. What is you were a financial advisor, a real estate agent, a automotive worker, a salesperson, whatever. I believe life goes in cycles and someday the storm will pass and the sun will shine again. What the landscape will look like then is anyone's guess.

 

I don't know if it served as motivation, but it definitely thickened up my skin quite a bit. My favorite part was the paper who rejected me twice for internships (the only thing different about the letters was that they were one year apart) that later hired me to cover it's only college beat.

 

I had an interview that was the strangest set of circumstances of any I've ever been in. In spite of a lot of stuff that happened, I had an interview in which I could tell I was impressing the people I was interviewing with.

I'd given them color printouts of PDFs from pages I'd designed at my old shop and passed them around. One of the guys was reading one of the stories when the other guy asked him if he had any questions for me. The guy said, "no I'm good. Actually, I'm still reading this." Later on, the guy who was still reading that story e-mailed me to thank me for coming in to interview for the job.

Less than a week later, I got a call saying they went with someone else. At least they called and told me, but I took solace in the fact that that was arguably the closest I'd come to getting a job since being unemployed.