One of my friends was finally interviewed by her dream company last week, but unfortunately she was rejected. They also let her know some of her weaknesses in certain sections such as algorithms, time complexity etc. My question is what's the right way to handle rejection in this case?
There are really only two possibilities:
Either way, you and she have a reason to celebrate: she didn't accept a job she's not cut out for!
What to do now? Celebrate, enjoy the interview experience (it will sharpen her for the next interview) and keep searching for a better fit for her skills :)
Tell her I wish her the best and hope to see an update after she wins her next interview!
Reflect on the interview: Questions asked. Presentation. How he/she answered. Did he or she ask for specific feedback afterwards? It could be the company was just looking for someone more senior, or that he/she fell short because of specific skills sought after that he/she did not present while other contenders for the position did.
I would say: 1) learn from your own mistakes; identify and be realistic about strengths and weaknesses; 2) learn from the mistakes of others; e.g. Look at interview questions on popular websites and read blogs and sites like hashnode (for example); 3) study to fill your gap... ask a friend to help 4) pick yourself up and try again
Try again in the future in the same company, maybe the profile of your friend is best for other company for now
A lot of good comments below, and I'll try not to reiterate them...
Your friend needs to know that the rejection was not personal first and foremost, and it probably did her a favor in the long run. Imagine if she got the job, and they put her in a position that she would most likely fail at. Aside from the company itself losing the time spent on her, she herself would most likely be even more embarrassed, thus potentially destroying her confidence.
I think all of the comments here not only pertain to this specific situation, but can be applied to general life experience as well. As someone with a physical disability, I was constantly told when I was growing that I wouldn't be able to do a lot of things. That made me want to try even more, and I eventually succeeded by learning what I did wrong and correcting it. There's no reason why she can't do the same thing!
How she should handle it ?
Such things are always hard because it's about hope and expectations. I got rejected a lot in the beginning. At a later point in my "career" I was rejected by a company I wanted to work for after being in the final round.
The CEO actually recommended me to another company, which was nice. My GF got into the company that rejected me and now I got information how it works on the inside and I have to be honest .... less magical. I worked with them they weren't superior they just needed a different skill-set :).
But still at the time I was left with the question why they did not want me. which sucked and stuck with me for a while. It passes and as long as she doesn't take it to personal she will grow on it.
I was in a multitude of companies and had a lot of interviews I got invitations from google, amazon and others never took them, I don't like big corporate. And still I will probably get rejected a lot by even small unskilled companies because I don't fit in their profile.
So rejection will always happen and if she takes her time, wait a little for the emotions to settle and reflect on it afterwards she can benefit from it.
to put one of my favourite mantras, i learned. in place "people who do a lot will make a lot of mistakes, people who do less will make less mistakes, people who make no mistakes are doing it wrong."
She has a learning and growing opportunity now and she should take it.
Rejection only means that you don't fit in the profile and you need to learn more concepts.
It's important not to become sad after rejection and study what you think will make you the perfect candidate. Maybe in the future, you will have another chance to be hired by your dream company.
I was in a similar situation and now I'm in a company that has an open mind and fits with my philosophy of work and development.
Do a side-project with her and address the weaknesses. Use this project to re-apply again for the job in her dream company. But don't rush. It would not look like she's a fast adopter, it would more look like she didn't respect the first interview marathon.
Mev-Rael
Executive Product Leader & Mentor for High-End Influencers and Brands @ mevrael.com
Many talented people are rejected because of the bad HR process and system. Moreover algorithms are far away from being something really important, it always can be practiced and re-learned fast, while huge motivation, creativity and many other skills are not something can be copied from the books for couple of weeks.
Big companies receive many requests and to physically be able to handle such large flow they have to add many additional steps and strong simple rules starting from CV scanning till algorithm test and basically without any personal opinion they would just take someone with a higher score since they don't care about you at all and will never waste their time trying to understand you as a person.
Dreams are good, but expectations are bad. Don't let attachments keep you in the past, let them go. Never expect anything from yourself and never expect anything from others. Be free. Very often we think that something would be very great for us, we imagine a lot and we starting willing it too much. Problem here is not only you might get a rejection but you also might be very disappointed and often in such cases people blame others. Your expectations are only yours expectations.
Rejection is not the end of life, what happened, it happened, you can't change it, don't waste your time and energy on what you can not control or can not change.
Keep looking around, keep improving yourself, keep going forward and never look back. It also doesn't mean you should take all advices and criticism you got during last interview, however, if you know you failed somewhere and you could do better, then, of course, learn on own mistakes and never repeat them again.
Probably find a job in a startup, that's the only place where dreams can become true and everyone will really care about you. Later you always can give that "dream" company a second chance.
Failures are the most important part of our lifes, that how we learn. Thank anyone in your life who stayed on your way because they all made you stronger. The key which distinguish successful people from the majority is that successful people are always rising after falling no matter what and how difficult it could be.