The happiness in rejection
This post is dedicated to and addressing young developers or anyone in general who are just starting their careers. This is not another post to explain you a technology or how to get hired in your first junior position. It’s to remind you that you are not the only one doing these first steps. We have all been where you are.
I would like to tell you 2 brief stories from my life.
The first one was back during my University time. I was looking for an internship, just a few years after the (pretty much) global economic crisis of 2008. In Greece..
Browsing around the scarce advertised positions in (back then, my major of) business administration.
I found very few job openings. I applied to three of four. Those were all of the ones that I found in the business domain. In fact, I was invited to an interview for one of them.
It was a very low-skilled data entry position, in a well-known, globally, financial company (with a 2019 revenue of $42 billion). During the interview, I faced 3 interviewers simultaneously, who, now reflecting it, were asking completely unrelated questions for that position, as well as making very hard (without reason) questions to a 3rd-year student. I was rejected.
Looking back that was actually some good news. Because taking that no, gave me the motivation to look for jobs abroad. It made me search and apply to more, and more, and more. And eventually, I landed on my first job abroad, in Amsterdam.
Just two months after that “no”, I was living abroad, getting experiences I would have never received on that boring data entry internship.
The second one comes 3 years later, when now a young developer, having some experience, I was looking for a full-time job.
This was a very hard time. I had maybe sent more than 40 or 50 applications globally but didn’t give up until I land on my first full-time dev job.
During those applications, most HR departments never replied to me. Some applications, in particular, wanted the salary expectations in the application form. There I wrote “X EUR". I thought that X amount was fair.
One recruiter emailed me back. Not for an interview, but with the feedback that X EUR is awarded to people after Y years. A month later, I eventually landed on a job with 30% less than this X salary. It was okay, but nevertheless I didn’t give up on what I thought was my market worth.
What’s actually fascinating here, is that in just 6 months after that email, I reached a salary way greater than the X. And definitely not having reached yet that Y qualification bullet that recruiter had pointed.
I try to imagine if the first company had said yes and had hired me. I try to imagine if I had really taken to heart the opinion of that recruiter, who actually thought he was helping me. What I would have missed…
Sometimes we take too deep other people’s or the industry’s opinion. May that be friends, family, partners, colleagues. You have Z years, you will get X percentage, you are in the Y category.
We crave the comfort of not getting a “no". Trying to blend in and keeping a lower profile. While we should crave and, partially, feel happy every time we hear a “no".
“No" is nothing else but someone not wanting what you can offer. So that be skills, partnership, time, or anything else.
“No” is not even a failure. It’s simply a reminder that you know what you want and the other person simply does not want to or cannot give it to you.
It’s up to you if you confront or give up.
If you are a young developer, yes, it might take more time to find something that you like, but only with perseverance.
But this post is not for developers starting their career. It’s for everyone. Just a reminder that only through a non-success state (sometimes for a shorter or other times for a longer period), we will succeed.
“No” is just a reminder that you are still pursuing the right thing you desire.
And that’s where the self-satisfaction is: when you get that “yes” and you look back at the process and yourself with a smile.
What about you? When was the last time you felt happy to eventually hear a no? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you for reading!
Want to learn more about me? I’m Dionysis, an Android dev at ShareNow + Founder of Nutech, a jobs app only for Android developers.
If you are an Android developer (either junior or senior), you will most likely be interested in Nutech app.
