Setbacks

Searching for a job has taught me how to deal with setbacks. Or actually, it is still teaching me how to deal with it now. Getting shot down by rejection guns (or being blatantly ignored) doesn’t really become easier over time, but you do learn how to compartmentalize. After a while you’re able to lock the negativity away in a part of your brain, knowing that this kind of rejection isn’t personal. You aren’t being rejected as a human being; you are merely being rejected as a suitable candidate.

Okay, that isn’t exactly nice either. I really hate it when I apply for a job thinking that I’m perfect for it, and that the desired profile description fits me to a tea, only to finally be rejected with the cliché sentence “Other candidates were more suited to the desired profile”. *Face palm*

What those words actually mean is “other candidates have more experience than you do”. And well, they do. So for that reason I decided to apply for a marketing traineeship at a company based in Antwerp and Ghent. Only two hours (!) after sending in my CV and motivation letter they called me up and asked me to come in for an interview. I’m sure you can imagine I was pretty happy at this point.

I spent four hours the next day preparing for the interview. I learned what the company was about, what they stood for, what their vision for the future is, and so on. I researched all the common interview questions, prepared answers and basically conducted the whole interview in my head about 10 times. After this I felt truly 100% prepared and confident I would do well.

On the day of the interview I made sure to leave very early, to give myself plenty of time to get there. I planned in about 1hour and 45 minutes for the drive, even though Google Maps had told me it would really only take 35 minutes. But better safe than sorry, right!

As it turns out, I should have left 3 hours early. Once I was on the motorway I got stuck in an insane traffic jam that caused me to stand still for over one and a half hours (an accident had just happened that closed up all three lanes). Naturally I phoned the person I was supposed to be meeting and told her about the situation. She was incredibly kind, even apologetic that I should find myself in such horrible circumstances, and finally we agreed to reschedule the interview. Pfew! Lucky me!

Traffic jam @ Kennedy Tunnel, Antwerp

… Not.

She never got back to me with a new date for the interview and she ignored my e-mail reminding her of our agreement. So finally I phoned up the company and asked to be put through to my contact:

“Ooooh right… Riet. Hmmm. We actually already hired someone for that position… Sorry. But thanks for calling, I’ll be sure to keep your CV handy should anything else open up.”

Forgive me if I don’t hold my breath for that one. Talk about your setbacks…

-R.