Career Blog
Dealing with uncertainty / rejection after a seemingly successful application process
You polished up your resume. You had your cover letter proofread 4 times. You made sure to tie your experience and abilities to the expectations of the role, all while infusing your personal brand and tone. You did your research on the company culture and voiced how you would fit in and excel there. You did your absolute best and you didn’t hear back. Ouch. It hurts.
To the dismay of the many eager job seekers, the frequented mantra: “only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted” is utilized all too often. Understandably so, although personally, I would appreciate a blunt “no” so I can stop biting my fingernails and end my incessant inbox surveillance.
Maybe you were fortunate enough to be selected for an interview, and if so, congratulations! You decided to be proactive by rehearsing your answers to the most common interview questions, and you made sure to schedule a practice interview with the Telfer Career Centre, incorporating feedback and recommendations about best practices. The day comes and the stars have aligned; you have the best interview of your life. Your answers were eloquent and well developed, you showed genuine interest, asked high-level questions and even made your interviewers laugh! As times goes on without any response, your satisfaction and optimism turn to confusion and disappointment. What went wrong? Do you follow up? How long should you wait? If you’ve already reached out and still receive no answer, what can you do?
Dealing with rejection is the unfortunate possibility we accept with every application we send out. Here are some important things to keep in mind when dealing with the disappointment of a fruitless employment opportunity.
Every experience is experience
- Focus on what you can positively draw from the experience. It could be something as simple as what you may have learned about the other person. Maybe there was a portion of the interview that you felt particularly proud of and want to replicate in the future, or an awkward disfluency you can ensure you avoid next time. Always try to highlight the beneficial aspects of every prospect. Doing so will not only help cope with any disappointments, but will hopefully encourage you to maintain a positive and perseverant outlook to keep trying.
Everything happens for a reason
- Try to take comfort in the notion that this event has occurred to your benefit. Yes, even though it’s a huge bummer, consider that perhaps the present has unfolded in this way to spare you from the worst and to ensure you are available for a better opportunity going forward.
You reap what you sow
- In today’s highly competitive landscape, it’s largely a numbers game. The more applications you send out, the better your odds are at landing a position. Of course, missing out on a dream job is going to sting a whole lot, but with effort and determination, the world is your oyster. Don’t give up.
(Stay tuned for the follow up to this article where we will address how to follow up after an interview.)
Want more information on interviews? Here are some other blog posts that might be of interest to you:
I used to think that an interview involved simply preparing for it, arriving on time, presenting your best self during the interview and then leaving and waiting to see what happens. I didn’t understand what we should be doing over and above the interview itself.
That changed when I attended one of the workshops put on by the Career Centre. I learned something very valuable that has helped me and will continue to help me throughout my career. And I’d like to share what you too can do to help you stand out from other candidates.
Essentially, I learned three important things to always do after an interview:
Ask for the interviewer’s business card
Asking the interviewer for a business card ensures you have the person’s contact information, which is essential for sending the interviewer a thank you letter. Once you have this information, you can also invite the interviewer to connect on LinkedIn, network with the person and perhaps develop a long-term professional relationship. Who knows? Maybe this means that person will think of you one day down the road when they’re looking to fill another position.
Send a thank you letter
It’s very helpful to send a thank you letter after the interview (ideally within 24 hours). In addition, to really show you’re interested in the position, you can use this as an opportunity to touch on some of the points you brought up in the interview again and to highlight for the employer why you think you’re the best candidate. For example, after the interview I attended for an ambassador position at the Career Centre, I sent a letter to Amanda to thank her for inviting me to the interview and to emphasize the qualities I could bring to the position. I’m not sure if this was what tipped the scales in my favour, but today I’m an ambassador at the Career Centre. Personally, I tend to send thank you letters only for the jobs I really want.
Follow up
I think it’s important to follow up after an interview if the date the employer gave you for a decision has come and gone. I know it may seem trivial, but following up shows you’re really interested in the position and enthusiastic about the opportunity. That said, in my humble opinion, not following up doesn’t necessarily reduce your chances of being hired or knock you out of the running—if the employer is truly interested in you, they’ll hire you whether you followed up or not.
Interviews can be overwhelming and it is often difficult to prepare for them, but if there is one thing that is certain, it is that you will most likely be asked to answer the famous ‘Tell me about yourself’ question. It sounds like the simplest of questions, but it is also the most dreaded. It is usually the first question asked by employers to get to know you better and get a snapshot of your skills. Here are three parts your answer should include to make a good impression from the start of the interview.
1) Who are you?
This answer should be separated into two parts. Firstly, discuss your educational and professional background. Discuss why you chose your field of study and why you are interested in working in it. Mention key aspects of this field that you appreciate. Secondly, try to showcase a snapshot of your personality by adding a sentence or two about a hobby you have, a sport you play or extracurricular activities you partake in.
2) What skills / experiences do you have?
To answer this question, it is important to note that the employer has your resume. Be concise and confident in your answer but do not go into a monologue on your background. Choose 2 or 3 skills or past experiences you think can be beneficial for the position and expand on them. Make sure to show some enthusiasm and show your personality, that’s what the employer wants to see.
3) Why are you the best candidate for the position?
This is the time you connect your skills and your background to the position you are applying to. Explain why you want the position and why you are a good fit for the company. This is a good time to show that you have made some research on the company by connecting ‘’your journey’’ to the company.
Think about the ‘Tell me about yourself’ question as an elevator pitch, where the product you’re selling is yourself. Your answer should not be longer than 1-2 minutes. Now that you know that this question is coming and that you know how to best answer it; practice your answer again and again!
Every Friday noontime, our Ambassador team offers peer-to-peer drop-ins to offer students advice or aid in their journey throughout university. A proactive first-year student walked in and asked me, “What can I do to stand out in university?” She had read up on my profile and knew about the things I was involved in throughout my time at Telfer. I was incredibly surprised by her preparation and research.
This question has stuck in my mind. Standing out was never what I thought about when I participated and became involved in everything I was a part of during these past four years. After some deliberation, I have created a short piece on potential ways to differentiate yourself in the big crowd of Telfer students.
1) Don’t chase your resumé. Chase your passions.
This is a big one. People often just chase the next thing that will make their resumé look better. Firstly, recruiters barely look at your resumé; only HR recruiters pay more attention to that. Secondly, it is incredibly obvious when you don’t emulate the things on your CV. When you chase your passions, that is when your CV tells a clearer story of who you are as a person. That gives you an edge over thousands of students who aimlessly search for additional ‘work experiences’.
We just finished our applications for the next year of executives for the Women in Management Network. Within seconds of the “tell me about yourself” question, those who were passionate individuals, and were self-aware of what they were looking for, stood out and became successful candidates. Others, even despite extensive resumés, clearly were by the book and were unable to provide me with a clear picture of who they were as a person. Your resumé and grades might get you the interview, but your passions and your story will get you the job.
2) Don’t stick to what you know. Explore.
Though vague, this touches upon the aspect of being by the book. Our school offers an extensive list of resources and services; however, there’s even more at the tips of our fingers in the city of Ottawa. In addition to number 1, find those events that add to the story you want to be telling. Don’t know what story you want to be telling? I know many students are still struggling to determine what field or industry they want to work in, even in their fourth year. I strongly believe that experience plays a big role in this. They haven’t had enough connections with seasoned professionals, delved into that world, tasted the needs and demands of their field beyond their classroom. Cultivating a growth mindset plays a big role within this. Our classes take up much of our time as a student; however, a consistently curious person will always be proactively searching for their next experience. Even if you’re not the best or enjoy that certain topic, don’t be afraid to keep learning in order to strengthen areas of weakness. Learning plays a big role into determining your passions and what you’d like to add to your ‘story’. Someone coined an interesting word on a TED talk: multipotentialite: a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life.
I think that’s the case for many of us in our university careers - we’re becoming good at so many things and interested in many topics, but we aren’t even realizing it because of the one-track setup our educational institutions put us in. Thus, it propels us into a one-track career.
Hence, going back to the “how do I stand out” topic, regularly nurture your growth mindset to be aware of current situations and build your roadmap of what you would like to learn more about outside of the context of your degree. You’re studying in finance, but you are passionate about graphic design? Nurture that side. Marketing student with a weird knack for marine biology? Don’t be afraid to explore and connect with people in that field. It’s the quirky things and curiosity that makes you stand out.
3) Build your tribe.
On top of all the things mentioned above, build up your network of peers and professionals that have similar values and aspirations to you. They will be your support network, mentors, sponsors, friends, and aspiration marks. Every entrepreneur likes using this term of ‘tribe’. By exploring what you are passionate about, want to strive to be, and then connecting to those who are currently living that life out, you are providing yourself with living examples of who you could be.
Eliminate the negative relationships in your life along with ones that do not serve you. Instead, scope out for people with growth mindsets that set you on the path for more. Make room for the inspirational people in life. Even in your hardest times, there’s a network, group, tribe of people who give and give back. Take time to nurture those connections.
Did you ever go to an interview without being prepared? Well, I did and believe me, I really didn’t expect things to turn out this way.
It happened last year for an interview with a BMO recruiter. During the same time, I was looking for a co-op placement in the private sector and I had even applied for a position at BMO (for which I still hadn’t heard back even though it had been quite some time). It was a mock interview organized by the Career Centre, and wanting to make a really good impression, I asked myself how I should prepare, especially since the interview wasn’t for a specific position. And then I asked myself, “What would happen if I went in without any preparation and just improvised?” After all, the main purpose of an interview is to determine whether there is a fit between the candidate and the employer. It was a risky thing to do but I still decided to go ahead with it.
Once I arrived, the BMO recruiter introduced herself with a large smile. We covered topics such as who I am, my projects, her career, and potential challenges for an employee who is committed to the project of starting a family. Since it was a practice interview, I felt more at ease, and the interviewer did not necessarily treat our interaction with the same level of formality as they would have if this was a real interview. So all in all, we had an informal discussion in a relaxed atmosphere. By the end of our conversation, I had really connected with the employer, to the point that we exchanged our contact information and she offered to put a word in for me for the position I had applied for at BMO. (I was later called for an interview for this position.) Yes, I had done several interviews before since I was a co-op student. Yes, I had participated in mock interviews for specific positions in the past. But I also went into the interview with something that we often decide to leave at home when we go for a job interview: my personality, the real “me”. It helped me answer the questions in a spontaneous way and I’m confident that it played a big role in my success during this particular interview.
Why did I decide to share this story? Because it took me a lot of time to realize that an interview is above all a meeting between two or more people who want to learn more about each other (yes, the assessing part goes both ways) to know if they are a compatible fit in a work setting. I hope that my experience will inspire you for the future. Please don’t hesitate to share your stories as comments if you have had similar experiences.
I wish you all success!
Note: This above story is Marie Emmanuelle’s personal experience. The Career Centre team recommends that you do your research if you are interviewed for a specific role, since employers will want to see that you are familiar with the role and their company. In addition, some roles may require very specific practical components, such as case type questions or very specific situational questions. No amount of spontaneity will make up for what they will perceive to be your lack of interest or research in the position so it’s always good practice to go into interviews as well prepared as you can.
You have successfully gone through the process of having your resumé reviewed by recruiters and you are now at the interview stage, where you will have to convince them to hire you. It’s your time to shine and set yourself apart from other candidates. By paying close attention to your outfit and to the way you stand, you will be able to do just that.
1. Do some research on the company
First of all, find out about the hiring company. You should normally do this before you send out your resumé, so that you know what you could be getting into and whether the values of the company are in line with yours. You can even adjust your outfit to the company culture.
2. Don’t try too hard
Choose a sober and professional outfit that is a little less casual than what you would normally wear in this position. Avoid low-cut tops, loud and bold colours, heavy makeup, short skirts or high heels. The goal is not to distract the recruiter from what you are saying.
3. Avoid perfume
Avoid wearing perfume since it can be unpleasant to someone who doesn’t share your tastes. Instead, choose a light eau de toilette.
4. Pay attention to your posture
Adjust your posture according to the message you want to convey. Stand upright and lean slightly toward the other person without crossing your legs and arms. And most importantly, maintain eye contact with the recruiter and don’t forget to smile.
Good luck to you all!