Page 178 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

CHAPTER 15

YOU BLEW THE

INTERVIEW.

NOW WHAT?

LEVERAGE REJECTION INTO A

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

No one likes to be rejected, but if you are serious about your career in
the long term, you must learn to embrace rejection. In the course of your
career you will get rejected for a lot of reasons—some valid, some not
so valid—and sometimes for no reason at all. The challenge of embrac-
ing rejection is to accept your limitations, transform hopelessness
into action, and learn from each rejection. Allow me to rephrase the
celebrated serenity prayer:

Grant me the confidence to accept the rejection I cannot change, the
determination to change the rejection I can, and the wisdom to learn
from each.
When they are rejected, most candidates fold up their tents and slink
away. That is understandable, but precisely the wrong strategy. To a sales-
person, a no is just the beginning of another conversation. Many candi-
dates have parlayed a rejection into a relationship that led to another job

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