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RE: bouncing back from interview disappointment (WAS: Advice needed for an upcoming interview)
Subject:RE: bouncing back from interview disappointment (WAS: Advice needed for an upcoming interview) From:"Porrello, Leonard" <lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com> To:Anonymous <anonymous -at- techwhirl -dot- com>, Techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 22 May 2013 17:02:57 +0000
It's a hard tree to climb into. Once you get in, if you are good and in a good market, moving from branch to branch isn't too hard.
As for rejection, it is never easy, but the difficulty is generally a function of our misguided universal human tendency to place too much stock in what strangers think of us.
If you were told that you were simply not the best candidate, and you cannot think of any obvious faux pas that you committed, you have a choice to make. You can either move on and try again, or you can engage in endless and mostly (totally?) fruitless self-analysis and, in future interviews, hyper-vigilance.
You did your best; it wasn't a good fit. You've made two moves in the chess-board of life. You lost a two pawns. That's ok. As long as you are breathing, you have an infinite supply of pawns! Try again--and let your "failure" form you into a more compassionate and forgiving person. That is arguably the only thing that failure is meant to accomplish in us in life.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Anonymous
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 6:39 AM
To: Techwr-l
Subject: bouncing back from interview disappointment (WAS: Advice needed for an upcoming interview)
Please post replies directly to the list, as they cannot be forwarded to the OP
First of all, I want to thank everyone that offered support, encouragement, and advice on this thread. Because everyone was so nice and positive (and obviously for more selfish reasons), I was hoping to close out this interview thread on a positive note, but, unfortunately, I did not get either job. I felt like both interviews went reasonably well. Apparently however, that was a matter of my own misperception. Several requests for an explanation of the apparent mismatch between what they saw in my resume, samples, and, in one case, completed questionnaire and what they saw and heard in the interview were met with unhelpful euphemisms or long-ago generated boilerplate. "Not the best fit." "Many candidates did not have the specific experience..." One place did mention something about wanting someone more experienced, and, well, I have only been doing this for a couple of years, so I can't really argue that, I suppose. I also suppose I'll never really know the real "why" of it. Which, of course, makes the disappointment and frustration even worse (to say nothing of the blow to self-confidence).
These were the first two tech writing jobs I've really pursued with serious intent and what I thought was a reasonably good chance of actually getting them. I tried to follow people's advice, I researched, I went in with ideas and questions and things to say about their public-facing documentation, about project management and documentation, about software development in general and documentation. I felt good and relaxed and confident. I talked to people I knew at one company to try to gain even more insight. And yet--I've come up empty. Thankfully, I have a position right now, so it doesn't affect my livelihood. But it still stings.
How doe one bounce back from this kind of disappointment? What can be learned from it? Am I barking up the wrong career tree?
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