By Shalini Sharan
Last week proved to be a major disappointment for my job search for my dream job. I thought I had found the perfect fit for my skills and ambitions and had made it to the top three spots for the final round interview. Therefore, when I saw an e-mail in my inbox from the recruiters, my heart sank a little.
I knew an e-mail only meant that I would be receiving another rejection. What ran through my mind when I read “we wish you the best for your future” were thoughts of imminent doom, the end of my job search, permanent unemployment and the end of my dreams of a perfect job. I could have taken this rejection better, but I had invested myself too much into the position already.
The next few days were full of disappointment, and I had lost motivation to start all over again. Being so close to being hired had given me unwarranted relief from continuing my job search. More than being disappointed with myself, I felt the burning guilt of letting others down. Throughout the nomination and the interview process, my professors and career counselors had been extremely supportive, positive and confident about my candidacy. All the expectations definitely compounded my sense of failure. I dreaded informing them and confronting my defeat but they turned out to be my pillars of support during this period of disappointment.
One of my professors—my mentor in college—immediately dismissed my worry about letting them down as “silly talk.” She made me realize that I had made it very far into a highly competitive academic field, which showed that I am a capable and a skilled candidate. This rejection only meant that I wasn’t 100% suited for the needs of the institute, not that I wasn’t a perfectly qualified candidate. A Bates College alumna told me next day that throughout her long career in public policy, she has learned that what really made her successful was how she dealt with the failures in her career. Another professor confidently told me that I didn’t get this job because something better was waiting for me and that I would look back at this point in my life and see how the pieces of successes and failures fell together.
Read The Rest Of The WSJ Article
I knew an e-mail only meant that I would be receiving another rejection. What ran through my mind when I read “we wish you the best for your future” were thoughts of imminent doom, the end of my job search, permanent unemployment and the end of my dreams of a perfect job. I could have taken this rejection better, but I had invested myself too much into the position already.
The next few days were full of disappointment, and I had lost motivation to start all over again. Being so close to being hired had given me unwarranted relief from continuing my job search. More than being disappointed with myself, I felt the burning guilt of letting others down. Throughout the nomination and the interview process, my professors and career counselors had been extremely supportive, positive and confident about my candidacy. All the expectations definitely compounded my sense of failure. I dreaded informing them and confronting my defeat but they turned out to be my pillars of support during this period of disappointment.
One of my professors—my mentor in college—immediately dismissed my worry about letting them down as “silly talk.” She made me realize that I had made it very far into a highly competitive academic field, which showed that I am a capable and a skilled candidate. This rejection only meant that I wasn’t 100% suited for the needs of the institute, not that I wasn’t a perfectly qualified candidate. A Bates College alumna told me next day that throughout her long career in public policy, she has learned that what really made her successful was how she dealt with the failures in her career. Another professor confidently told me that I didn’t get this job because something better was waiting for me and that I would look back at this point in my life and see how the pieces of successes and failures fell together.
Read The Rest Of The WSJ Article
No comments:
Post a Comment