How to interpret resume rejections
I had a call recently with a client who had gotten 5 rejections from his job applications in quick succession. From this limited info, he had decided that he was not going to get a job in tech and that he should now start working on plan B. Since he was still very early in his job search process, we started by discussing how to interpret a few resume rejections before wholly changing your career goals.
First, identify the factors that might be in consideration for why he was rejected.
As candidates, your first few applications may not be well-targeted as you are starting to learn about your interests. Take an objective look at your application to see where the misalignment was, or consider any external factors that may have had an impact.
In this case, his candidate profile showed he had fewer years of work experience than some of his peer applicants, he required immigration sponsorship, and his applications weren’t well-targeted towards his actual interests. (He was lured by the ease of submitting LinkedIn Jobs applications.)
Second, what factor(s) can you NOT change?
In the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, they being by asking whether you’re facing a ‘gravity problem.’ A gravity problem is a problem that is not actionable. They are fixed and the only way to handle them is to accept the situation for what it is or reframe the way you think about it.
With this client, two of the rejections came from companies that he knew did not provide sponsorship. As he had no control over those immigration policies, it was better to move on as he was only partially interested in these companies anyway. (I’ll discuss how to think about immigration status in a future newsletter.)
Third, what CAN you control or change for future applications?
Resume rejections should give you some information to help you modify your strategy. Here are a variety of options we discussed: select a different set of companies to consider? Re-evaluate which role(s) to apply to? Network with employees who could tell you about ‘hidden’ job requirements? Get referrals to boost your credibility with the recruiter/company? Revise your resume again to be even more targeted? Seek out new projects/experiences & add them to your resume?
All of these actions (and more!) are within your control to help improve your application outcome.
Resume rejections can be super frustrating, but it is worth it to take the time to figure out why they happened to the best of your ability. Sometimes there’s no good reason for being rejected (that we know about) -- but in most cases, you have info that can provide insights. Then you can use those insights to make better decisions for the next set of applications.
