interview – Computing @ Newcastle: Employment & Enterprise

Getting a job rejection sucks. It can absolutely ruin your mood and make you question yourself. And chances are you will receive more than one before you are finally able to secure a role. So how do you deal with constant job rejections and apply the loss to future success?

Here are some tips:

REFLECT

After completing an interview, you might be tempted to immediately focus on what went wrong rather than what went well with intrusive thoughts like “Why didn’t I mention this?” or “I should have known a better answer to that last question.” It is easy to focus on the negatives, so next time you do an interview, try to focus on the positives first. Not only will it make you feel better, but it will give some insight into which areas you are doing well in.

A great approach to reflecting on interviews is to think about it from the perspective of the interviewer, both the good and bad parts. Don’t think about how you feel it went but go off the actual interview.

What do I mean by this?

During an interview, chances are the interviewer will be taking notes. You should do the same. While the interview is still fresh in your mind, write down the questions asked and what your responses were. Then, bring up the job specification and see where your responses hit the required criteria; highlighting them in green is a great way of visualizing the parts that went well. Following that use a red pen to annotate and add to your answers to see what you might have changed or improved if given a chance to do the interview again. Rather than churning all the thoughts over in your head, getting it written down as a way of reflecting will help you out a lot more in the future.

FEEDBACK

Sometimes the easiest way to improve is to ask where you went wrong.

It is essential if you ever receive a job rejection that you ask for feedback on your application. While you are more likely to receive feedback at later stages of an application process, there is no harm in asking at any stage, from the initial submission of your CV and Cover Letter to the technical test and final interview. The reasons behind a rejection from a certain role can give critical insight into where you need to focus your efforts in the future. It could be something super small and easy to rectify that has been preventing you from moving further in application processes, but you won’t know until you ask.

You can practice most stages of an application process with the Employability Team, and it is their job to give you feedback. This is less focused on the content you might have, such as your portfolio or experience, and more on how you might answer a question and present yourself. It also gives the added advantage of practice!

OPTIONS AND MOMENTUM

Getting rejected for a role that you have invested time into researching, applying and attending interviews for can really knock your confidence and make you apprehensive for any future roles you apply for. This is why it is so important to keep both your options open and the application momentum up as much as you possibly can.

It can be tempting after you have applied for a job or reached the interview stage for a role to stall any other applications until you hear back from them.

Don’t do this.

While waiting for a certain company to respond back to you, you can use that time to apply for other roles so that you always have at least one on the go at any one time, regardless of if you get a rejection. This is also another great way to gain practice for all stages of an application process, which you can apply to the roles you might be more interested in. For example, you might apply for your dream role but also apply for another role that interests you as a backup. It might take a while for the dream company to get back to you but in that time, you get quite far in the application process for the other job, including a few interviews. You can draw on the experience gained during those interviews during the interview for the dream company.

YOU AREN’T ALONE

Another important thing to consider is something that probably seems obvious, but chances are you don’t think about it as much as you should after a job rejection. You are not alone in this. People get job rejections all the time, including other people who applied for the same job you got rejected for. It can be easy to take the rejection and any criticism you get to heart but there will be others who receive similar feedback. Securing a job is a competitive and lengthy process that you probably won’t nail the first time. And as I have mentioned in the article, there are people who are willing to help you achieve those goals.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about creating a CV, with the assistance of resources provided by the careers service. I learnt a great deal, but it was only one-half of the initial application process. This is a follow-up to that article, focusing on the other half: the cover letter. And thankfully, the careers service has resources to help again!

When it comes to writing a cover letter to accompany your CV, there are several pitfalls you could run into. And the main reason is that many people don’t know exactly why they are writing a cover letter.

Many make the mistake of just using it as an opportunity to rattle off their CV again.

What you should be focusing on is you, what you are doing, why you want the role and why they should want you for the role.

It is about linking the skills you have shown in your CV to the role you are applying for and why exactly they make you perfect for the role.

What goes in my cover letter?

In the past when I tried writing a cover letter, I didn’t really follow a set structure and just wrote until I filled a page. Not the best method to get the attention of a company. But through using the University’s resources, courtesy of the Careers Service, I have a much better understanding of how to approach this one-page conundrum.

The main objective of a cover letter is to show the company you are applying for who you are.

That personal touch makes you a person rather than another application in a dozen. The challenge is that you only have one page to do that. Sticking to that one-page limit is hard but here is a method of breaking it down:

Beginning
Introduction
Why them?
Why you?
Ending

Let’s look at what each step asks for…

Beginning

Address who you are talking to, and make sure to get their name and job title correct! Try to do some research to find the name of the person who will read your application.

Introduction

First impressions matter, and this is where you do just that. So be sure to make it something strong, positive and confident. Explain what you are doing now and explain why you are writing. If applying for a specific role, state which role and where you saw the application.

This part is especially important if you are applying speculatively for a role as you will need to be specific about what kind of role you are applying for and be sure to consider giving a range of options in case the role you want is not available.

Why you

Now that they have a rough idea of who you are and why you are writing, it is time to start selling yourself to them and explain why they should hire you for the role. Summarise what you have to offer by talking about the key selling points from your CV that demonstrate that you are what they are looking for. Don’t just repeat what is in your CV (that’s why you have one!), but rather give a concise summary with specific examples. Avoid talking about generic skills and qualities in isolation!

Convey your enthusiasm for the role and what you can bring to the role by talking about what relevant experience you can bring to the role. This could come from your degree, an internship or other bit of extracurricular work.

This is the most important part of your cover letter and chances are you might write more for this bit than you would other parts, so feel free to break it down into two paragraphs.

Why them

It can be a pain having to write a cover letter for every single company you apply for, and it can be very tempting to just use a generic one; but that will do you no favours. Each cover letter should be tailored to the organisation and role you are applying for. Otherwise, you won’t come across well to employers.

Research the company to find out as much as possible about the field of work, the company and the role you are applying for. This will also give insight into their ethos, training and product/services which you should also talk about. Furthermore, it will help inform you as to whether this company is the right one for you.

The orginisation’s website is a great place to start to research but don’t just repeat what is on there. Have a look around on LinkedIn at current employees and what they are up to.

Ending

End on a positive and friendly note asking when they would be able to have an interview before signing off with ‘Yours sincerely’ if the name of the person you are applying to is known but if not, put ‘Yours faithfully’

The Careers Service has many more resources and detail about what to write in each paragraph of your cover letter, so be sure to check them out here.

How do I write my cover letter?

Now that we have a rough idea of what we should include in a cover letter, it is good to get some practice at writing them. The only issue with this is that you need a job to apply for.

If you want to practice early, you may not want to wait for a specific role to come available for you to practice on. Thankfully though, the university links a fantastic resource where you can find templated job descriptions for a range of different roles. You can find it here.

By using these examples, you can create cover letters that specifically target the requirements of those roles without the pressure of deadlines.

The careers service has example cover letters that you can also give some initial inspiration if you are struggling.

How can I check if my cover letter is good?

Now that you have practiced writing a cover letter, how do you check what is good and what areas to improve on?

If you have read the CV article, it mentions an extremely useful AI-powered tool called CareerSet which analyses your CV and highlights what areas you should improve on. CareerSet also works for cover letters.

Like the CV, you get an overall rating of your cover letter, giving an indication as if you should make changes or not.

It gives clear examples of not only what you could improve on, but also what you did well!

Not only does it evaluate the content and structure of your cover letter, but the relevance to the job description you are applying for. This is extremely important to help stop your applications from becoming generic, and are more tailored to the role itself!

Of course, computer-based feedback may have some advantages, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure your cover letter appeals to an actual human. You can submit your cover letter to the Careers service, and they will give written feedback to you in around five working days. You can book a slot here.

The career service can also help if you don’t have much work experience to include in your CV as you can book an information appointment to help develop your skills. Additionally, if you need any reasonable adjustments or have extenuating circumstances, the careers service can help you with how best to include this information in your cover letter.

Cover letters may seem intimidating but at the end of the day, they are just a single page that you get to spend talking about how great you are. How bad can that be?

Tag: interview

How to deal with job rejection