There is so much advice out there for how to handle rejection, for the most part this is “keep your chin up and keep applying” and “put more time and effort into your CV”.

But when you can no longer count the applications on your 2 hands and 2 feet, and you’ve edited your CV so much so that there is no way you can improve it anymore, rejection can really knock you back.

You start getting into a loop of getting rejections back faster than you can put applications out and it really is disheartening and, to be honest, rather soul crushing.

Yes, at the end of the day, you do have to keep applying to jobs because that really is the only way you’ll get one, but I’m learning that you’ve got to give yourself some time to process and allow yourself to do some wallowing.

No, it’s not time efficient.

No it’s not productive.

But your mental health needs it.

You can’t be go go go all the time and it is absolutely 100% horrid receiving rejections all the time. It knocks your confidence and it makes you feel out of control (especially living in this post uni covid world full of unemployment and unlikely job prospects).

We’ve got to cut ourselves some slack, the job market is absolutely pants right now.

In March to May 2020, Quartz found that “Job vacancies also showed the the biggest drop ever.”

And where there are vacancies, there are more applicants than ever. Business have let staff go even after the furlough schemes: “August to October – the furlough phase-out period – was always going to be crucial, because firms now have to decide whether or not to retain staff” Says the Guardian.

And with businesses closing down and calling it a day, more and more of us are clawing our way through the job market.

Those who have been let go from jobs are applying to ‘lower down jobs’, like the entry level jobs that they have way more experience in than those who the entry level jobs were initially designed for. Thus most applicants don’t stand a chance as they’ve had no time post uni to have more industry experience but are competing against those who have had years and so are also expected to have gained 2 years plus experience in their desired business field.

So for the limited vacancies there are, there are more applicants, and more over qualified applicants than ever.

Tell me this, when, whilst completing my degree, how was I supposed to gain 2 years work experience in an industry I wasn’t even 100% decided on being what I wanted to do career wise after uni?

So yeh, it’s blooming hard to get a job right now so we need to stop beating ourselves up for not being able to clasp our hands round anything more than the idea of receiving anything other than a rejection email.

It’s frustrating, annoying, and feels totally unfair. Consequently I feel we are completely entitled to the need for a wallow and sulk with each rejection email — especially as most say that; “Due to the high volume of applications received, we are unable to provide feedback for applications which are unsuccessful”.

So with no feedback, we can’t even learn where we might be going wrong, or how we can be better for the next application so each time just feels like another hopeless stab in the dark.

All we have is that the knowledge that one day our stab in the dark will make it but it’s hard to feel reassured by that. We have no other choice but to keep persevering so we need to cut ourselves some slack.

Have a wallow, take a break from applying, and just give yourself time to pick yourself back up again!

We are doing our best, but even so it’s okay to feel like the world is against you. We need to take it easy on ourselves and do it at our own time and pace so we don’t burn ourselves out… we will get there in time but let’s not drown ourselves in rejection emails first.

It’s a tough world out there and you’ve got to look after yourself (and I too need to take my own advice).

Thanks for reading all.

Sorry it’s not the normal happy chatty and bubbly Sunday blog post but I felt that this needed to be said to help me process and take my own advice. I hope it helps others in a similar situation too.

Hope you are keeping well.

Lots of love to you all,

Abi x