Most people don’t get every job they apply for. But it takes a degree of resilience to handle rejection and continue the hunt. This can be particularly challenging for recent graduates. For the most part, you’ve had success your entire life – doing well in school, getting into college, and then graduating from college. At each stage, you’ve probably had consistently positive feedback. But, the transition out of school and into the job market can be rough and highly discouraging. This can lead to what has been called the “job rejection blues.”
It takes action on three key fronts to help mitigate the impact of the job rejection blues: focusing on intentional activities to support your body, your mind, and your soul.
Respect Your Body
Physical health is foundational to anyone going through a highly stressful period.
There’s no doubt that job hunting can cause stress, whether it is writing resumes, completing online applications, interviewing, or waiting to hear the result. We know that stress creates a wide range of bodily symptoms, ranging from headaches to insomnia to lack of appetite or even overeating.
To combat this, job hunters need to treat themselves well. Here are some suggestions recent grads have found helpful:
- Eat properly: make sure you are getting all of the nutrients your body needs to fight off stress. This means eating a balanced diet with an occasional splurge.
- Adequate Sleep: Practice good habits to support getting adequate sleep. Aim for 8 hours a night, manage your sleep environment to minimize light, and optimize the temperature for your sleeping needs.
- Physical Activity: Exercise helps to reduce stress hormones and maintain your level of fitness. Stress management experts suggest a minimum of 30 minutes a day of walking or other aerobic exercise. Most grads are doing more, but if you are not active at all, aim for the 30-minute daily target.
It may seem like it’s all about “back to the basics,” but job hunters should periodically “audit” their self-care routine to ensure that they are taking the proper actions to maintain their overall physical health.
Manage Your Mind
Your response to a job rejection may be to feel overwhelmed and not know what steps to take next. Often, the difference between success and failure is how you deal with rejection. Successful business people will tell you that they have failed often, but they continued on their path and tried to learn from their experiences. They display some common traits. They recognize that their thoughts about a situation may not represent reality. They look at their circumstances objectively, which enables them to assess their progress and determine where to make course corrections.
Here are some tips to help you move forward.
- Take a moment to look at your situation objectively.
- Recognize that your thoughts may be more influenced by your emotions than reality.
- Handle the feeling of being overwhelmed by breaking down actions into smaller components. If applying for jobs overwhelms you and you can’t submit all of the applications you want to submit, consider targeting a smaller number. For example, instead of applying for 15 jobs in a week, apply for 5.
- If searching for jobs using LinkedIn is overwhelming because it is such a large marketplace, use platforms that are built for recent grads, such as Handshake, where companies are actively looking for recent grads.
- Analyze your job-hunting process to find opportunities for improvement. Are you submitting applications? If you aren’t submitting, you won’t be asked to interview. If you are submitting and not getting interviews, you may need to look at the quality of your applications. Are you providing information that is specific to the job requirements? If you are getting interviews but no offers, you may need to focus on showing how your skills, experience, and education relate to the job requirements. Do you need to refine your explanation of why you are interested in the company or the industry? Your answers to these questions will help you focus your activities in the most impactful areas.
Nurture Your Soul
When we experience multiple rejections, we can spiral into a gloomy mental space. Our self-talk or internal dialogue can become quite negative. Here are recommendations that recent graduates have found helpful.
- Practice mindfulness and living in the moment to help diminish this sinking feeling.
- Avoid negative self-talk. Be your own cheerleader. Talk to yourself like you’re talking to your best friend, and treat yourself with that level of respect.
- Reach out and engage with your classmates and friends. You will find that you are not alone and will benefit from fellowship.
- Expand your horizons. If you notice skills you don’t have are being requested for positions you want, take this opportunity to obtain those skills. Look online for free classes or certificates. Take advantage of this time to work towards eliminating this gap.
- Consider doing something for someone else. It can be very beneficial to your spirit to help others and to put your concerns in perspective.
- Practice gratitude. Although not everything is working out for you immediately, you have achieved quite a lot. Appreciate what you have achieved so far.
To sum up, no one loves learning that they did not get a job they interviewed for, but it’s important to keep moving forward. Try leveraging these tips to help, and if you determine that you need more specific advice, reach out to us for help at Kerrie@CommandtheInterview.com. At Command The Interview, our mission is to work with individuals and partner with institutions to help candidates win the job of their dreams!