If Christopher Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him. Of course, no one would have remembered him either. Unknown Author
Let’s face it – job hunting is a pain in the neck and it is especially irritating if you need to address complex selection criteria or write ‘war and peace’ just to secure an interview.
But it is more painful, when you get a rejection letter after spending hours putting your application together, only to be ignored and relegated to the ‘not interview list’. Yet the reality is that rejection is a fact of life when you are job-hunting. You can either take it all very personally, or you can develop that critical ‘can-do’ attitude, in which you accept the setback as only temporary and part of the process of securing your dream role. To stay motived after rejection:
Surround yourself with support
Surround yourself with positive people. Get rid of people who zap your energy and self-esteem and gather support from people that will give you the encouragement and the critical feedback required to stay on track. You want people that remind you of your strengths and help improve your weaknesses, as opposed to people who commiserate with you, but only focus on the negative, not the positive.
Stay focused
It is easy to lose focus on the task of job hunting, in particular when working full time or when you receive rejection letters. But you need to stay on track, by developing your own personal action plan. Job-hunting is like any campaign, you need to choose specific actions and take and perform them on a daily basis. These actions might include researching industries or employers, looking on job boards every day, networking, contacting industry contacts, cold or warm calls to employers, follow up calls, applying for specific vacancies, obtaining feedback from job interviews, sending follow up letters, role playing a job interview twice per week, practice negotiating a job offer, getting feedback on written applications and extensively repackaging yourself in your current marketing documents (resume, cover letter, selection criteria).
Think positive
A positive attitude is vital to your success. Most successful people fail, more than they succeed, but the difference is that they realise their own self worth, so always end up succeeding spectacularly.
One approach to stay on track and remain positive is to write out positive affirmations about your job-hunting skills. Affirmations are based on the theory that every thought has an impact on actions. If you believe you are going to stuff the interview up, or not get that dream job, than this becomes a reality. If you believe you are going to be successful, than this too becomes a reality. Obviously it is more complex then this and there are countless books and research papers on the subject area, based on how the mind works consciously and subconsciously.
Put simply, affirmations are a way to help re-program the mind, in which you start to believe in yourself, through positive statements and putting your intentions in writing to help you focus on the goal. “Affirmations imprint thought upon the subconscious mind” says behavioural psychologist and educator Gene Schirmer. “By nature the subconscious mind accepts everything it’s told by the conscious mind and services as an automatic pilot in guiding our conscious behaviour, sharpening focus and reinforcing commitment”.
So write positive affirmations about your job-hunting skills, such as:
- My unique qualifications and solid experience have prepared me to be the new team leader at DIAC.
- I will perform like a star in the interview.
- I come across with confidence in interviews.
Stay healthy and be social
Get enough sleep. Eat well and exercise. Go out and see your friends and don’t talk about your job hunt all the time, but enjoy yourself.
By staying motivated and positive after rejection and accepting rejection as a fact of life when job hunting, you will be able to regard every ‘no’ as a ‘not today’ and a step closer to success.
Leave a Reply