As mentioned in the previous parts of this series, I have experience on both sides of the fence when it comes to the job hunting process. The other side of that fence has taught me that there could be a myriad of reasons why a company may reject you that have nothing to do with you:

Department or project ran out of funding

Lost a big client/project or the project fell through

They found someone whose skills were a perfect fit

You were choice #2 and choice #1 just happened to come back with an acceptance

There was some specific trait that reminded them of a previous bad hire (see availability heuristic)

Maybe the team has noticed a common pattern amongst previous bad hires. While correlation does not equal causation, people may still make that link

They may have had really terrible experience with entry-level hires

They may not be able to greenlight you as a candidate because you need something specific, like 5 years of experience of experience with a specific software. People don’t want to end up looking like an idiot to their managers by bringing them candidates who don’t fit the bare minimum

Maybe they deemed that you simply would not be a good cultural fit. You could be too brash and aggressive for a laid back team or maybe too quiet for an aggressive team

An internal person has expressed interest in the role

A referral from a trusted colleague or recruiter has come to their attention

Here are reasons you can control:

Using industry terminology and understanding industry trends — I found that I got a much better reception from the interviewer when I used the terminology and could speak intelligently about UX so keep up your research, reading, and self-training!

Are there specific interview questions that keep stumping you?

Are you not providing specific or convincing examples to demonstrate your strengths?

How is your tone of voice?

Have you trimmed out all the irrelevant details? I found that when I spoke too much about the data analysis I did in my current job, it diluted the message of my potential in UX.

Are there better, clearer, and more convincing ways to show that you are timely, a fast learner, and that you take initiative?

Experience, to SOME degree

Get input from your friends and contacts to escape the echo chamber in your head. Always validate your approach by consulting a trusted and professional-minded outside perspective who can give constructive criticism.

The more interviews you do, the more effortless and more fine-tuned your pitch will be.

Retaining Your Sanity and Self Esteem

Whether the outcome is good or bad, everything is 50% timing. There are countless factors in why an employer may make a decision. All you can do is control the 50% that you CAN control. The only thing you can do to make up the 50% is to jump at every opportunity and just keep persisting.

Keeping a confidence list

But how do you persist despite getting rejected over and over again? That is difficult. I underestimated how disappointed I’d be during this job hunt. One thing that helped me was to create a list of things I value/love about myself and my accomplishments. It included small things like keeping the kitchen clean almost every day to big things like graduating university or winning a silver medal at a jiu-jitsu competition.

I would argue that you should make this list before you even start your job hunt and reference this often. Your job/employability is only a single part of you and when the job hunt isn’t going well, you will need to remember the other components that will remind you of your value and awesomeness.

Do the job hunt in waves

Give yourself periods where you aren’t doing anything related to your job hunt. I had to allow myself periods of doing nothing so I can prevent burnout. Give yourself time to recover from rejection and allow yourself some time to be upset.

Do other stuff

Doing other non-jobhunt stuff during this time and chasing other goals can be a good escape. I don’t mean freelancing in the field or anything remotely related to the job hunt. Indulge in a hobby or work on an unrelated project. Thinking nonstop about the job hunt and working on resumes and getting interviews is going to burn you out and cloud your head. For me, my escape(s) were training jiu-jitsu and working on the comic, Kamikaze. Chasing more than one goal at a time can help with your motivation because even if your job hunt isn’t going so hot, you can still celebrate other accomplishments. Maybe I didn’t get a single interview all month but I mastered a difficult transition in jiu-jistu. Or ended up completing more comic pages for Kamikaze.

Turn your To-Do List into a Got-Done List

AT one point duirng my hunt, it felt like tasks kept creeping onto my to-do list. After a while, just glancing at the long list of things I still needed to do gave me a headache. I started inverting this and created a “Got Done” list. As job-hunting related tasks completed, I would add it to the list for that day. Personally, it made me feel better to look back and see how much I had accomplished towards the goal.

Be open to related roles

I was incredibly fortunate to end up with the exact job I wanted but after several failed interviews, I started opening my mind up to other roles and paths into UX. I studied other UXers’ work histories on LinkedIn and took note of the type of roles they had right before their first formal UX title. There are several paths to the same destination and if you’ve got to do more to prove yourself, be open and willing to do it.

Conclusion

The goal of all of this is never to deceive. The goal of all the prepwork and interviewing is to build and sell yourself as a valuable team member. Given the tiny window of time, it can be very hard for employers to judge this so being concise in your messaging is key. The process of hiring is far from perfect as there is no consistently reliable way to predict who will have good work ethic. While it sucks to be rejected, it’s helpful to keep in mind how risky the endeavor is for the employer as well. When you step into their shoes, you can try to hone your messaging to mitigate those concerns and inspire confidence.

I felt so dejected at point during this job hunt. And then one week, I just happened to have two companies who wanted me to come in and interview. Both gave me offers. I suddenly found myself between two amazing teams who fought to win me over. A third company even called right after I accepted one of the offers. It was so surreal going from zero results to 3 companies vying for my attention.

I don’t think I would have won over those 3 opportunities if I didn’t go through all of those interviews, meetups, coffee dates, etc. to build my knowledge base and effectively pitch myself.

Yes, half of it was luck/timing but the other half was hard work and strategy that prepped me for those moments where opportunity randomly pops up.

Job hunting, like dating, requires irrational optimism. It’s just one of those areas where you just have to believe in yourself and believe you can do it regardless of all previous data. Even if you feel despair, you need to just be able to turn that despair off and display enthusiasm on that next call. It’s better to feel excited and pumped up than to just worry about rejection all the time. The emotional will is exhausting, but necessary.

However, you gotta be smart about it too. You need to address and fix gaps and patterns that contribute to the rejections. You also need to be able to recognize when rejections are NOT due to anything you could have done, and it’s just a matter of time. I was able to achieve this without the formal UX title on my resume or the HCI degree and I’m glad the hard work eventually paid off.

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. — William Feather (1889–1981), American author

Part 1: Research and Prep for a Career Change

Part 2: Making Connections in a New Field

Part 3: Interview Prep