How Many Times Can You Handle Rejection?

October 28, 2010

So once again today I eagerly check my email as I see the 1 indicator pop up next to my “mail” application on my iphone. Only to face my moment of disappointment with a rejection email from yet another company turning my lack of work experience down. From June to now, I have applied for more jobs than you probably have in your entire life. And each job inquiry has met its match against a letter that holds the phrases: “you have not been selected” or “your experience does not meet our qualifications”.  The healthcare is deemed a position that will always have jobs in any economy or that there is a shortage. Any one should hire you! Which is true, to an extent. The extent stops at a job that you actually want as a new graduate.

                Having graduated in March as an RN (registered nurse) in Utah is decidingly a hard position to hold. There is a shortage in certain places for nurses, but in Utah, they met the challenge of not having enough nurses with overproducing nurses. There are at least 7 nursing schools I can think of off the top of my head within one and half hour drive, just in my neck of the woods. This is not counting the nurses that have stayed at home to raise their kids for a few years and because of the economy, they are getting back into the field or the countless number of nurses that should be retiring but in the economy cannot. Thus they are taking the good jobs from the graduate nurses because they have what we do not: experience. Hospital jobs with great benefits, smaller patient to nurse ratio, better experience base, are thus holding on to seasoned employees and out of the 90 applicants for one position, are hiring the one with more experience.

                I’m sure you have had rejections in your life. Everyone has. Even when you were younger and liked someone that didn’t like you back. Or even a college denied you entry or when you were buying a house and got rejected for a loan. Life is full of disappointments. We can’t get away from them. People aren’t perfect. Situations aren’t perfect. And life is hard, especially when you have dreams. To have experience in nursing means to have been at a hospital in any department for at least a year. Now to actually get into that hospital in the first place is where the trouble comes in. Some job descriptions just say 1 year of experience, so technically I should be more eligible for those jobs after working for a full year, even at a nursing home.

                When I applied and got the job at the current nursing home I work at, I informed the head guy that I am and will still be trying to get into a hospital because for my dreams to take place, I need to be in a hospital. Though he laughed and said I would be taking his job at some point, I thought to myself, “he doesn’t know my ambition and ability to handle rejections.” Of course when I don’t have a job and need money rejection hurts way more, but in my case I do have a job that pays well. I am just looking for more. Not that the “grass is greener on the other side” because I know its not. It will be much harder actually having to use the skills taught in school that I rarely ever use at my current “babysitting” job. Being at a hospital will open a door though. That’s all I am looking forward to.

                And that’s what rejection usually is, shutting the door on a possibility or different path in your life. Most people get rejected and don’t like that feeling of someone not liking you and the emptiness of wondering what is wrong. Some people stay in their comfort zones and try to never move forward to new opportunities. They don’t avoid all rejection just the ones they can control. Even though I have been rejected numerous times…to give you a perspective: 4 times in the past 2 days…I will continue to apply for these jobs and go towards my goal because I’m determined and ambitious. I know I will have many more rejections, but it will all be worth it when I finally at least get to round two: an interview. At least then I will know the rejection is because of me, not what’s on paper.