Turned down for the job? Didn’t get the interview? Lost the position to someone you believe to be a less qualified candidate? Don’t try to rationalize away the sting of being rejected. Don’t let your worth be defined by others… Even though it smarts, you’ve got to get right back in the hunt. Rejection is not a permanent condition, it’s a just short-term setback.
Analyze what went wrong but don’t wallow in every failure. As written by James Joyce, “Mistakes are the portals of discovery”. Failure is a situation all of us experience in our life at one time or another. It’s how we react to those failures that differentiate winners from losers.
Become more self-assured. Most fears of rejection rest on a person’s desire to have approval from other people. Don’t base your self-worth upon other people’s opinions. Don’t let your negative mental-talk sabotage your positive attitude. When confronted with a challenging situation, what do you tell yourself? “I’m not good enough… I don’t have enough experience…I don’t have enough education…This is too hard a change for me…I’ll never make it…”?
Identify your credible fears. Exactly whom do you fear and why? What do you believe might go wrong? Who has the power to reject you? Why would that person say no? Finding the answers to these questions will help you face your fears head on and preserve your self-control, as well as prepare for success in your next interview.
Vet2Work first published this article in 2014 and updated 2018.
Picture source: Adobe Stock
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