The Job Application Rejection Myth

---

I was chatting with a hiring manager about his hiring practices and priorities.

“So how do you preselect applicants for interviews?” I asked.

“I reject all incoming applications at once,” he replied.

Long pause.

“Did I hear it right? You reject them all??”

“Yes, that’s right” he replied confidently. “I wait for those few who will fight back. Those are my interviews regardless of what their resume looks like”.

---

When I work with clients, I always encourage them to think like an employer.

Well, here it is – an important lesson about what some employers look for in job candidates.

Sometimes a great resume will get you that phone call.

If it happens once in a dozen times, you’re exceptionally lucky. According to recent research, the chances of that happening are somewhere close to 2%.

What happens every time you hear nothing about your application or receive that “we’re so sorry – you’re next in line” email?

Most of the time, you try to fight the bitterness of yet another rejection, and move on to the next job application.

Is rejection always meant to silence you?

Rejection really is inevitable.

When I was interviewed for my first internship at a very reputable recruiting firm, I blew it. It was a clear “no” on the spot.

All the way home I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted that job and how good I could become at it. As I arrived home, I picked up the phone and called my interviewer. I was so nervous my hands were shaking.

I wasn’t in the right state of mind to come up with some super smart ideas for showing what value I could bring to the company. I used very simple language to describe how sorry I was about my interview performance and how much I loved everything about the job and the company itself.

The interviewer invited me for another meeting the next day. She brought the hiring manager with her to the interview. After I explained how much I cared about doing the job really well and being part of their team, I was offered the position.

I hadn’t been to many job interviews before, so I was terrified.

Obviously, I could have done my part better. But the hiring manager told me how much she admired me being the first applicant ever to fight for the job after being formally rejected.

Could there have been a much less happy ending to this story?

Of course.

They could have hired the person who came in after me, and that could’ve been it.

But I didn’t care – I knew I had to give it a try.

I’m not going to give you the usual “don’t let rejection bring you down” speech.

Because rejection sucks, and there’s nothing we – especially the thinner-skinned ones – can do about it.

The only thing we can do is fight back having nothing to lose, and see what happens.

Yes, employers want qualified candidates who have what it takes to do the job and add value to the business. Yes, they sometimes pay attention to credentials and titles, and want to know as much as possible about previous professional accomplishments.

But employers also want someone who would care about the success of the business and their individual part in it as an employee.

Someone who doesn’t take no for an answer – whether it is for their own benefit or for their employer’s. Someone who isn’t afraid to fail twice if there is even the slightest chance of a successful outcome.

Being a job seeker, it may be hard to sympathize with the other party that has an upper hand in the whole process. But employers do struggle processing hundreds of incoming resumes, half of which may be completely irrelevant.

Sometimes their keyword-scanning algorithms (known as the Applicant Tracking System, or ATS) reject excellent highly qualified candidates. The hiring manager never gets to see their impressive resumes and know that these applicants even exist.

You don’t lose anything by going the extra mile.

And the best part is that it’s a lot less crowded than the common resume-keyword race.