Overcoming Interview Rejections

Rejections at interviews are not uncommon. But your success at every subsequent interviews depend upon how you handle your failure in the previous one.

How easy is it to overcome an interview rejection?

It took me 12 interviews to get my first job. With every failed interview, I kept loosing my confidence. Every subsequent interview seemed as if it was even more difficult than the previous one. It was later that I realized that it was not that the interview was difficult. Instead I was loosing confidence.

It was an uphill task for me to regain my confidence and keep appearing for interviews until I could get through.

Before we even discuss how to overcome interview rejections, a question to ask is – Why should your loose your confidence when you get rejected in an interview? What you need to understand is the fact that they have not rejected you. Rather they have lost you.

The best approach to take is to look at rejection as a loss to the organization and not a loss to yourself.

It is often seen that even after so many interview rounds and screenings, organization often make the wrong decision and hire the wrong person. The consequence is a disaster. In doing so they often reject much more and better skilled talent, only to loose them to another organization who has a better form of interviewing and screening.

7 Things to do to overcome Interview Rejections –

As soon as you are through with and interview and you get to know that you have not been selected, don’t be disappointed. Follow this 7 step method to overcome the disappointment and to gear up for your next interview.

1. As soon as the news of you not getting selected is conveyed to you by the interviewer, thank them for the time and effort they invested in you and ask them if there is a feedback.
2. Don’t leave the interview venue immediately. Sit there for some more time and jot down 5 things that you think that the company lost by not hiring you. Read that for about 10 minutes and then leave.
3. Go out with your friends for a cup of coffee or, a dinner or, to watch a movie. Prefer not to go to pubs or, discotheques.
4. Read about 2-3 chapters of your favorite book, preferably a non-fiction book. I recommend, “The Magic of Thinking Big” or, “Tough Times never last but Tough People do”.
5. Prefer not to use terms like “rejected” or, “not selected” when telling people about your interview result. Rather say, “I was over-qualified or, over talented for their organization”. It might sound odd, but it will make you feel good from the inside.
6. Prefer not to schedule any interview the very next day. Set up your next interview at a gap of at least a day and leave everything alone and take some rest for the entire day.
7. Jot down 5 things you thought did not go well in the previous interview and what their ideal responses would have been. Practice them for about 15 minutes. Then proceed for your interview

These are simple things to do and you might feel awkward with doing a few of them. But these give good results and help you rejuvenate for the next interview.