Getting rejected from Palantir in late August was probably the best thing that could've happened to me. It was the first company that I interviewed at for a full time roll and it made me realize I wasn't ready. I spent the next 8 weeks coding for three hours a day and preparing for interviews. Ended up landing a great job that I'd take over Palantir any day.
How to get a job after you've been rejected
21–30 of 72 posts
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#22Job searching must be a nightmare if every application requires 100 hours of effort.
Lots of people have spent more than 100 hours on their job search, spread across hundreds of companies. The idea is - what if you focused on the ones you really want, and put more effort into those?
Moreover, everyone who is in their 5th week of unemployment, for any reason, has spent 300 hours - not 100, not 200, three hundred hours NOT doing anything even tangentially related to getting their next job.
Life is literally a zero-sum game, and over the course of 5 weeks, 840 hours passes, of which 210 hours are kind of nonnegotiable (6 hours of sleep per day). The rest of the 630 hours over just 5 weeks are spent however you want. Two discretionary hours per day on sleep, maybe even thre (totalling 9). Six hours on not doing job stuff. Three on job stuff. Another four on not doing job stuff. Are you keeping track? Another two on not doing job stuff. That's 24 hours, including 9 hours of sleep and/or nap time. Every day. "It adds up, Jerry!"
We counted 630 discretionary hours over just 5 weeks. Sure, some could be spent on "search". But as for the rest? Why not plough it into specific jobs you're entertaining.
I would never be above spending 40 hours on a single programming sample showcasing a set of technologies I really wanted to work with, especially if this entails learning it for the sample. 100 is not far off.
How much of those 100 hours included learning something? I would say that you need to spend ridiculous amounts of time preparing for and working on getting a specific job.
You can spend a year on it! Part-time. Just on getting a specific job that is open for a year.
Please can and do.
No reason not to.
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously? It's not trying too hard at all. If there's a job you really want and you're really passionate about getting it no matter what, you should do anything in your power to try to get it. If you fail, you can at least say that you tried as hard as you could and it just didn't work out.
If there's a job you really want.. you should do anything in your power to try to get it. No really, you shouldn't. For the sake of your long-term self-esteem & professional stature, what you should be looking for is a 2-way street. Which is not to say you should apply for companies that are hard to get into, or for which get tons of applicants that you'll have to stand out against -- of course you should. And of cou…
There is nothing wrong with working hard to get their attention. It isn't a 2-way street until you've already proven yourself, that's when the relationship become symbiotic.
The dating analogies don't apply.
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there's a job you really want.. you should do anything in your power to try to get it. No really, you shouldn't. For the sake of your long-term self-esteem & professional stature, what you should be looking for is a 2-way street. Which is not to say you should apply for companies that are hard to get into, or for which get tons of applicants that you'll have to stand out against -- of course you should. And of cou…
There is nothing wrong with working hard to get their attention. It isn't a 2-way street until you've already proven yourself, that's when the relationship become symbiotic. The dating analogies don't apply.
The way I see it you've already proven yourself to some degree before you even apply. 99% of your experience has been acquired, 99% of your projects have been done, 99% of your skills are already in-hand. If that doesn't get the possible employers' attention already, then a few last minute stunts aren't likely to do it either.
IMO 100 hours is an excessive amount of time to spend on a single job application, even if you really want it. In 100 hours you can do a hell of a lot - I would kill to have an extra 100 hours available over the next couple of weeks (say).
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#25So I put in my 100 hours. I made a custom resume that I illustrated with little Evernote-style animals. I got out my guitar and sang a song about why I wanted to work there. I designed a custom iPhone app for them. Eww. Talk about trying way too hard.
Seriously? It's not trying too hard at all. If there's a job you really want and you're really passionate about getting it no matter what, you should do anything in your power to try to get it. If you fail, you can at least say that you tried as hard as you could and it just didn't work out.
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Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#26> By rejecting me at first, college admissions taught me the most valuable lesson of my life. It doesn’t matter if you’re told no. Everything’s negotiable.
I've learned to appreciate this over the years. However, I think this is very much an American thing. I lived for 4 years in Europe and people are much more willing to bend the rules in America, whereas people in Europe tend to "follow the rules". And thus, the people that support the systems are less willing to bend. Any European natives agree?
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#27You can tell it's a good job market because being rejected for a job nowadays wouldn't feel like a big deal in the slightest.
It would simply be onto the next one and you'll probably have an offer for something equally good or better within the week!
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#28This was a great read, especially as our startup gets closer to launch and we need to keep in mind both the value of rejection, and the philosophy of always trying as hard as we possibly can. The 100 hours specifically can be debated for job applications and etc., but the idea behind it is hard to argue against.
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#29I'm going to state an uncomfortable truth. As somebody who has seen more than a few horrible interview failures - how about you put in a 100 hours of work before you come to the interview?
Not for the company, but for yourself. And not doing fancy resumes with songs and pictures, but learning the basics of what you're actually doing? Because I'm fairly certain that most interview rejections are due to the fact that your qualifications are insufficient, not because your resume wasn't fun enough.
Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there's a job you really want.. you should do anything in your power to try to get it. No really, you shouldn't. For the sake of your long-term self-esteem & professional stature, what you should be looking for is a 2-way street. Which is not to say you should apply for companies that are hard to get into, or for which get tons of applicants that you'll have to stand out against -- of course you should. And of cou…
There is nothing wrong with working hard to get their attention. It isn't a 2-way street until you've already proven yourself, that's when the relationship become symbiotic. The dating analogies don't apply.
The point is that as with dating, there's a penalty (in some cases fatal) that comes with trying too hard -- you just come off as cloying and desperate. The OP clearly exceeded that threshold, by leaps and bounds.