Dealing with rejection is difficult. And this may be the first time in your life you’ve had multiple rejections. The silence of not hearing a response can also be difficult. We often have coaching appointments with students frustrated that organizations aren’t communicating yes or no in response to their job and internship applications. Consider the actions below before or while you’re experiencing rejection or silence to help you identify it and continuously develop strategies for coping with it during the search.

✅ Take care of yourself.

• Understand signs, symptoms, and steps associated with critical incident stress. 
• Recharge with a variety of Moments of Mindfulness activities offered by DuWell, the wellness center, during the semester
• Read How to Deal with Job-Search Depression from the New York Times for a practical overview about why you might feel down, and has actions that help deal with the stresses of search. Take note that if you are depressed, you have support. There are myriad resources listed here. While the search process has inherent struggle, please don’t suffer.

✅ Read these articles about how to embrace rejection in the process and move forward, even when you don’t hear back from recruiters.

• Career Coach: Dealing with rejection and setbacks | The Washington Post
• How to Keep the Job Search Moving Forward—Even if Recruiters Ignore You | WSJ (avoid the paywall: Full Text from Duke Library with NetID)

 

📚Additional Materials

How to Move On When You Didn’t Land the Job | The Muse Responding to a Rejection Message (samples)| Resume Worded After an Interview: Responding to Rejection | Duke Career Hub Dealing with Rejection & Silence in Your Search | Duke Career Hub