Much like the feeling of saying goodbye to a friend or the moment when you bite down on a seed in a tangerine, getting rejected is a very unpleasant feeling. Understandably, it can make you feel inadequate, and you start to obsess over “what went wrong”, “what did I do” and “why didn’t I get accepted”? Coping with rejection is a valuable life skill because it’ll happen very often. It’s an unpleasant truth, but it makes getting accepted all the sweeter when it does happen (and it’ll happen!). Anyway, here are a few tips on what to do if you find yourself discouraged by getting rejected from an opportunity.
- It probably wasn’t your fault. When it comes to applications for internships and other opportunities, you will probably not be the only person who applied for it. There are so many different people who apply for many things, and there are only so many people the recruiters can handle and process. Sometimes it’s luck, sometimes it’s because there was someone who did something a little different. It’s very difficult to tell, and you should keep this in mind when coping with failure.
- Nothing Lost, Only (some) Gain Going through the application process is an experience in and of itself. Writing a CV or cover letter, going through interviews, all these activities give you some experience. As you go through more and more of these applications, you get a better sense of what the employer is looking for, which means you’ll gradually have the “perfect application”.
- The Bigger Picture This one is easier to say than to do but consider the long run in (not) getting an opportunity. It gives you time to reflect on what to do next, and you might find that the path you go down is better than the one you wanted to go down a few weeks back.
- Don’t be hard on yourself Another one that is easier said than done but being super-tough on yourself isn’t going to help you very much. If it was a genuine mistake you made during the application process, acknowledge the error and figure out how not to repeat it. “Forgive” yourself so that you may move on from it.