What To Do When You Don't Get The Job

As graduation season approaches they'll be a lot of fresh new graduates applying for jobs. It can be a scary place, you're suddenly in the real world. Come on in, it sucks. (I'll link my Life After University post here.) There's suddenly no soft cushion which surrounded being at university. You could spend weeks, months even years searching for THAT job.

A day may come when you've been job hunting for a few hours, you see a post which is exactly what you've been looking for, happy days right? You apply and await for a response. Lets say you've passed the first hurdle and secured an interview. You do your research, and come out feeling like you've impressed them. Only to discover a couple days later they call you and say they've gone with someone else. Wait! Huh? What now?!

Be proud of what you've achieved
Coming from someone who has had way to many 'on this occasion you haven't been successful' letters than they'd like to recall. If you got to the interview stage that is something to be proud of! I know that doesn't really mean much when you've just been told you've been unsuccessful. When the pain slowly drifts, you'll recall the interview with hindsight and think of things you could have done differently. You've experienced being in an interview and can use this to build on.

The right fit
Someone once told me, if I don't get the job don't take it personal, it probably wasn't the right fit. Hard not to take it personal, right? It may be that their right. This job wasn't the right fit, down the road a better one might be.

Your time will come
This is honestly what keeps me going. When discussing jobs with friends and family I've been known to bite back and reply 'how do you know?'. Secretly I hope they are right. I do feel that the job market is mainly down to luck and who you know. Someone else might have got this job but your time will come!

Laugh
Laughing is better than crying over it. No one likes mascara tears anyway. Find a way to laugh. Go out and meet friends, laugh like you have no worries. It'll make you feel so much better.

Overall, you will be upset, its natural. You'll feel like you'll never get another opportunity, but you will! Try not to forget that. For when you're feeling really down, well that's when I go to my good friends Ben and Jerrys.

How do you deal with not getting that job?