As a recruiter I had what I call “the roller coaster week” where I get really excited because I found a great candidate for one of my clients and the candidate was interested in the company. He looked like a great fit so I submitted the candidate. The client liked the resume so they started their interview process. The candidate went through hours of exhaustive interviews with the staff only to find out…he’s not quite the right fit. He looked like an awesome fit, met all the criteria they were looking for but fell short in the interview process. Sometimes companies need to realize that not everyone is going to fit exactly into the box they want to fill and sometimes they should look outside the box. I did advocate for my candidate knowing he was qualified for the job, but to no avail. What do you tell your candidate when they ask – what did I do wrong? He didn’t do anything wrong, he answered honestly and did his best, it just wasn’t exactly what my client wanted and they wanted to continue to look for that “perfect candidate”. The most important thing for any candidate going through something like this is NOT TO GIVE UP. He will find another opportunity with a company that sees his potential and it will be better in the long run. Not easy to handle at this point, but there are many people who have had a failure and are able to turn it into a good learning experience and move on. Who would have known that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, then went home and cried. Can you imagine someone as great as Michael Jordan not making his high school team. He didn’t give up though, he just kept shooting baskets over and over again until he mastered it. Who would have known that Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was 4 and that many of his teachers continually told him he wouldn’t amount to anything. Hmm, wonder what his teachers said about him after he became famous for creating the theory of relativity and many other things. I found a quote from Albert Einstein that said “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” This is just another example of not giving up. As a job searcher you need to be and stay strong through the job search process. One little setback is not enough to stop you from achieving your goals, so stay strong and believe in yourself and your dreams. Don’t sell yourself short. This may be a time to believe in the quote “everything happens for a reason”. Stay positive and believe in what you are setting out to achieve and don’t give up.
NEVER GIVE UP!