Refusing To Accept Their Rejection

The letter said it nicely, but it still said no. “Thank you for your application for our opening, however….” You know how the rest of the letter went: flood of applicants; so many well-qualified; impressed by what you have to offer; difficult choices….

You might also think you know how I felt, what I did next. If you thought tears, misery, angst, and heartbreak, you would be wrong.

In fact, I was full-on furious, so furious that I dressed in my interview clothing, took this letter and my rage to their head office. I waved off the kindly ancient woman guarding the personnel office, smiled and said I’d only be a minute. She gaped after me, possibly phoned security.

I stormed into the hiring manager’s office with the rejection letter and laid it beside the offer letter that I’d received a few months earlier. The only thing that had changed was timing; I’d turned down the offer when it meant I’d miss my college graduation. They would not budge from the start date, being a behemoth that took on droves and trained them in lockstep manner. The start date is the start date; take it or leave it. I left it.

The hiring manager was a little taken aback when I laid the two letters in front of him. No one had ever charged in like that before. What’s more, they prided themselves on being selective in their hiring, so what had gone wrong here.

I had insider information that I did not share. A friend who was working there told me that they had openings, were eager to bring on a new class of hires in the fall quarter. I also knew that I had the highest score on a test given to all applicants because the person giving the test told me so the day I took it.

I laid it out: I am the person you wanted to hire. All that’s changed is timing. I’m available now. Hire me now.

Fortunately for me, he listened. I started work the following week.

Companies make mistakes. All the time. We all know about the colossal ones, the epic ones about meltdowns and bad behavior, failsafe measures that fail to work. Some of the stories are even entertaining, pure circus brought to glorious life.

Most mistakes are small, so insignificant that you never hear about them. Sometimes they are so minor that no one notices because they don’t affect the course of doing business, making money, and bringing good things to life.

However, this mistake affected me personally which made it a major problem. And, being young and unexperienced in the world of business mistakes, I took it to heart, took it personally and had to stick their nose in it.

I had nothing to lose — and everything to gain. The worst that could happen was they’d say that I’d blown my opportunity with them by insisting upon my priorities. The best was that I’d have a job.

Being a kid straight out of school, I didn’t know better. And that is why I wound up working for them for several years, to our mutual benefit and gain.

Sometimes the “No” launched at a job applicant is “Not now” or “Something came up” or “We…{fill in pompous phrase}.”

Other times, the No is a mistake. Reject that No. Be brave. Challenge it with a solid argument, proof, whatever it takes to get someone to listen to you. In defending yourself, you can demonstrate why they need to say yes to you.

It may not work out in a job offer, but you will know more than you did before you said no to the form letter, the courteous and firm “get lost, kid.” And you can take what you learned and use it for your next yes.

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