Learning From Rejection

You apply for a job online.

You get a rejection email message.

You sigh, feel a little disappointed, and look for more jobs to apply for.

OR

You ask yourself what have you learned.

“Learned”?

What you learned is that the employer didn’t think you were suitable for the position.?That’s learning?

Learning means getting some new knowledge to improve yourself.?What new knowledge have you gained by getting rejected??Nothing.?Unless the employer is going to tell you why they rejected you.?But they aren’t going to do that.

But maybe there are things happening that are so subtle that you haven’t noticed.?Until right now.

Maybe you can learn something by how fast they rejected you.?Huh??What the heck?

This analysis is what I call “Job Search CSI”??? .

What difference does it make whether they rejected you in seconds or days or weeks??There is a BIG difference-

1. Seconds:?Means your resume/CV probably has an ATS (applicant tracking system) problem.?The company’s ATS was able to scan/process your resume/CV/application within split-seconds and make a decision about you.?Most likely:

A. There was a resume/CV formatting problem, e.g., too graphical.?

B. ?Your resume/CV was missing an important keyword or requirement from the job ad/posting.

For more details on ATS rejection:???https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/my-resume-receives-responses-mark-ikemoto/

2. Days:?Means your resume/CV was accepted by the ATS.?Congratulations!?It also means a human probably read your resume/CV.?Which is also great news.?Many applicants don’t get this far in the process.?But you still got rejected.?There are many reasons for this.?The top reasons are:

A. You were missing an important requirement.?Or more likely it’s in your resume/CV but it wasn’t easy to find.?Did you customize your resume/CV for the job?

B. Something didn’t catch the recruiter or hiring manager’s (R&HM) attention??Again, did you customize your resume/CV??And in what way?

3. More days stretching into a week or two:?R&HM are probably getting a lot of online applicants and are trying to process the queue fast as possible.?Is this a larger, medium, or small company??Larger companies are more popular than smaller really unknown companies.?Maybe you should target smaller companies.?Or if the company no matter what its size is getting more recognition in the news.?Focus on ?less trendy companies.?They can still have worthwhile jobs, especially if they are looking to break out from their pack of competitors.

4. Weeks:?R&HM wasn’t sure about you or else they would have rejected you immediately.?Or contacted you to interview you immediately.?But they found you promising enough to delay rejecting you.?That’s actually a good sign.?Even if you get rejected, you may still want to try to contact R&HM and give another pitch for yourself (maybe a few pitches).?Try to give them second-thoughts about rejecting you.?You may also want to use this technique in this article for figuring out who won the job and how you compare to them:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/winner-identification-find-out-who-got-job-maybe-why-uses-ikemoto

And improve your resume/CV for the next similar job you apply for.

Besides the name “CSI”, is any of this scientific?????No.?Fool-proof??No.??But it may be very helpful especially if it allows you to see your job search situation in a different way and gives you clues on how to improve your chances.?You are applying for dozens of jobs, or 100, or 200.?THAT is a lot of great “data” to help you.

What else to look for?

1. Automated rejection email message from ATS or a rejection message from a human??From a human gives us an easier way of responding back to the rejection with another tactic or strategy.

2. Same rejection message if you are applying to more than one job at the same company? This usually means an ATS is involved. A human would be better.

3. What day of the week was the rejection email message sent to you??Saturday or Sunday sounds more ATS than human.

4. Time of day you received the rejection message??This will give you an idea of when it was sent to you.?If it’s late at night, it was probably sent by the ATS.?You’ll need to do some timezone conversions if the company is based in another part of your country or the world.

Important:

5. What did the actual rejection email message say??The wording may give you more clues.

In particular, what was the tone of the message??Was the message trying to be encouraging and upbeat??Or just stone-cold negative??Judge them as dispassionately as they would judge you.?Be thankful if you dodged a bullet.

Important #2:

6. Did the rejection come from the company or from an external recruiter hired by the company to find candidates??(Recruiter types:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/recruiter-types-applying-job-mark-ikemoto )

If you got rejected by an external recruiter, you may want to find another external recruiter or apply again, but this time to the company directly on your own.?(You can only do this if you haven’t signed an exclusive-representation agreement with the external recruiter.?See my article above for details.)

When did YOU apply?

Don’t just analyze the rejection.?Figure out how the following fits in:

1. How did you find out about the job??Job board??The company’s website??A recruiter’s posting??

A networking contact??Etc.

2. What was the date when the company posted the job ad??(also, was this a reposting?)

3. How many days after the posting did you find out about the job and apply for it?

4. How many people had already applied when you applied??Some job boards will mention this in their job ads, e.g., LinkedIn, etc.

5. How many days after applying did you receive a rejection??(we’ve already talked about this above)

6. If you got a positive contact, how??Through email or phone or text messaging??I think phone is the most positive.

7. What job position was the contact person??Recruiter??HR??Hiring Manager??Hiring Manager is best.

Gather as much of the above as you can.?Form an image in your mind.

How can you keep track of all this?

Spreadsheet??? .?If you’re serious about your job search, you need to use serious methods.?Don’t scratch notes on the back of a scrap of paper.?Keep track of everything, even your opinion of the tone of the rejection message.?What you keep track of represents what you’re aware of.?What you’re aware of may give you other ideas for what to track.?And the more you keep track of, the better the chance that you’ll improve how you apply online.

Applying online is not as simple as it seems.?But you have more control than you think.?It starts with expanding your awareness.

One more interesting thing:

If you have to go through all of this work to keep track of rejections, you’ll want to minimize your rejections???? .?How do you do that?

Easy.

Apply less often.

Be more selective about the jobs you apply for.

Target and focus on the companies and jobs you really want.?And really focus on WHY.

You’re going duck hunting.?It doesn’t help to shoot at turkeys!????

If you really know what you’ll want, you will naturally start networking.?A job seeker who is great at applying online can become a great networker.?Awareness and focus.?A good duck call will attract ducks to you.

More Job Search CSI articles:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/interview-csi-mark-ikemoto/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/interview-csi-after-you-get-rejected-mark-ikemoto/