Normally when you introduce yourself to someone new you don’t naturally start with a taboo subject. Usually I try to put my best foot forward; expose the confident parts of my self. But that’s exactly the opposite what I’m going to do. So, here we go.
Hi, I’m Hannah and I just received my first rejection letter…ever. As a senior with a plan to have a “real-person” job next year, I spent the majority of winter break researching organizations and job opportunities with the hope that I would somehow apply to numerous jobs before I came back to school in the middle of January. We all know the end of that story…it didn’t necessarily happen the way I pictured in my head. But I did manage to put two applications together. I felt extremely confident about both of the applications; I was perfect for the job in so many ways, it would be impossible for them to reject me! I was invincible. My reality check came a few weeks later.
The letter read: “After giving careful consideration to your application, you have not been short listed on this occasion.” I thought to myself, “I’m sorry…what!? No way this is happening!” I came to realize, however, that my experience of receiving my first rejection letter strangely mirrored the stages of grief after a loss. (Psychology major nerd alert!) In a sense, this rejection was a loss for me – I had quickly gotten my heart set on this job and told many people how perfect this opportunity was, but I had to let go of that dream.
The first stage is denial – “I feel fine”, “This is isn’t happening to me.” Check! I definitely went through that part. I read that letter over and over again, just in case somehow the words had magically switched around to say, “Congratulations we would love to have you in this position!” Somehow that didn’t happen, yet I didn’t want to let go of the fact that maybe this was all just a mistake. I couldn’t have been rejected from this job…right?