Week 3 - From Rejection to Hope

Earlier in the week I applied for a role that I really thought I would be great at. I put so much effort into customizing my resume and cover letter specifically to that company and that role. I even was able to get in contact with a Director in that department to gain a bit of insight on what that role entails to ensure I would be a good candidate. 

But in a matter of days I was rejected with a canned response. 

That hurt. 

A lot. 

I knew it was a long shot anyways because I don't have a degree, I don't have a traditional background that shows I had experience with that sort of role,... AND it was in SF, so they'd have to fly me out if I got an interview. 

I had a high bar to reach to be worth the trouble on their part, probably… or maybe my resume just wasn't as well crafted to get past their ATS and speak to the needs of that role as I thought it was. 

Either way, I made a rookie mistake and kinda fell in love with that organization and the idea of working on that team. 

I had already been fantasizing about moving out to the Bay area… I was already thinking about how I would apply the lessons learned from my experience working with startups to better help this product to truly stand out in the market…

I got ahead of myself. 

That's why the rejection hit me harder than I expected. Because I foolishly didn't expect it. 

But it's fine. I basically took some days off, not on purpose, but I was just too wounded to continue my job search for a few days. 

In that time, I made a DnD character!! His name is Kromatash and he is a Kalashtar wizard.

I'm excited to play my first DnD campaign with my SO and Discord community this weekend. ??

But after that break, things felt like they were going uphill again after going to those 'coffee chat' meetings I scheduled last week.

My conversation with Adam from Dragon Army as well as with Deigratia from Futurus were phenomenal! 

Talking with Adam helped me realize how much I should probably focus on a specific role and a small startup to make it easy for people to see how I can be a great addition to their team despite my background. I am also going to be sure to continue networking and finding events to go to as well. Seeing how much I really want to work at companies with a mission of positive social impact, he told me about the Center for Civic Innovation. I'm going to an event there this weekend! 

Deigratia not only took the time to talk with me about his deep history in the ARVR field, but he also introduced me to his entire team! It was really fun talking with their team about the VR landscape and seeing what they do on a daily basis. The sheer depth of Deigratia's experience in this field humbled me too. I thought I caught VR early when I learned about it in middle school in 2008. But he has been creating immersive simulations longer than I've been alive!! 

The things he's done on private and military projects, as well as his own impact projects is mind blowing. 

I really can't thank these guys enough for being willing to make the time in their incredibly busy schedules to meet with me. I will be sure to find ways to help them out in the future as well.

Going Forward

It's been a pleasure connecting and I can't wait to do more of it next week! 

I ended the week applying for another job I really liked. But I have no expectations this time. I just had fun with the process. 

Just like with my macro process on the PATH, I'm going to treat my job search as a game. I'm going to simply enjoy the actions I get to take and the people I get to meet as part of this Quest line. 

Just like in a game, the other players you meet, and the events you go through are part of the experience. They help you craft a story around your Quest. 

When I look back at this week years from now, I'm probably going to see this realization and these happenings as a major fork upon my journey. 

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What do you do when faced with rejection? What do you do to grow and maintain your network regularly?