I took an online assessment at the start of this week for an internship. Solved the first two questions in under 6 minutes.

Then I spent 50 minutes on the next one.

I was so upset at the end not because it was difficult, but because it was not difficult. I tried something, it failed and instead of pivoting, I went through the rabbit hole of debugging. Seeing the solution made me feel worse because I knew I could get there.

And after that, I moped - for hours. And this was just an online assessment. It reminded me of failing a second round technical interview two years ago, which had me do nothing for days. It reminded me of graduate school rejections that I dwelled on. But something I have had to keep reminding myself is that you can’t take rejection personally. A failed OA, failed interview, failed final round should be a moment of reflection to what you can do better not a complete hit at your personality or technical skills.

You can either understand why you failed and do something about it or understand why you failed and do nothing about it. But in the time you dwell on a rejection, you probably lose out on a bigger opportunity. When I was interviewing as a junior, I completely stopped applying elsewhere. And when I got that rejection in mid October, not only was I upset, I realized that the prime recruiting phase (Aug-September) had passed.

As we approach fall recruiting season, rejection is unavoidable. I try to give myself a window of time to wallow: cope with my annoyance and move on to something better. Don’t measure your worth because of a company rejecting you and keep your head up high. It takes a lot of strength to keep coming back up but you won’t know what awaits you unless you try.