Sameera Valamuri - Keeping Your Perspective During a Tough Internship Search
Finding an internship or a job can be an emotional rollercoaster. There is a lot of hard work that goes into this effort, whether it be strengthening your resume, building your interview skills, reaching out to your network, or going through multiple rounds of interviews. When you finally find a position that you believe you are the perfect fit for, it can be hard to wait for months only to receive a rejection email, or sometimes not hear anything at all. Additionally, it can be difficult to scroll through LinkedIn and see announcement posts about job offers your friends have received at other companies.
While the combination of these situations may bring down your self-confidence, it is important to give yourself time to absorb the outcome and ask for feedback, if the company is allowed to disclose it to you. Handling rejections is a learning experience, because it pushes you to look back and think about what you could have done better in the recruiting process. Rather than looking at a rejection as a failure, take it as an opportunity to continue developing your skills, which will ultimately help you get closer to your dream role. When dealing with such situations, you should allow yourself to take a break. We may become so absorbed in the internship/job search process that we forget to recharge or take part in our favorite activities. Personally, I have found that taking time out of my schedule to relax has helped me recover from past rejections because it gave me an opportunity to destress and reevaluate my priorities.
Your situation will not be like this forever. One day, you will look back at this point of time as a valuable period of self-reflection and learning. While it is easy to compare yourself to others in this process, realize that every individual’s journey is unique, and it is better to focus on yourself and your priorities in this moment. Ultimately, handling rejections is an unavoidable part of the internship/job search process, but rather than looking at it negatively, take it as a way to continue building your skills and become a stronger individual.
If you have any internship or career search questions, please email careerconsultant@scu.edu.