how to learn not to take rejection personally?
I’m a freshman at a target. Kind of at a loss. Have good grades (3.9+) and I’m in a couple clubs. I’ve gotten rejected from a bazillion internships at this point and I’m wondering how everyone else does it. People on this app make it sound easy, and I didn’t think it was, but I feel like I’m failing every step of the way. What do I do differently? Everyone I know with an internship has one through a parent or had someone write applications for them or something. What the heck do I do? I’m working my ass off but I’m starting to feel like I’m just a moron.
Had dealt with this during internship recruiting. You just have to get back up and keep going. It became clear the recruiting process was largely based on things such as technical knowledge, people skills and networking, but I realized it definitely entails luck and is a numbers game. Some of my friends from college were some of the brightest and most polished students I knew - good personalities, passionate about finance, leadership positions in top business clubs, had strong network of upperclassmen, solid students etc., yet still only received offers after interviewing at dozens of places.
It is always just a matter of applying to as many places as you can, learning from shortcomings, reassessing where you could've been better and turning your weaknesses into strengths. Try to be resourceful and gain insights from others either from people you know in school, courses, mentorship programs etc. You should always go in prepared and be positive. Know there are a lot of opportunities out there for you.
Echoing this as well. A lot of this comes down to luck and practice. Mocking helps a lot too. You need feedback from others.
The problem is that I don’t even get to the interview stage. I am a good public speaker/talker and I just wish I could have the opportunity just prove myself beyond the screening stage because I know my strengths. I don’t think I’m worse than my peers in terms of my resume experience or anything, but maybe I’m lacking something else? A guy I know has his whole family on deck literally every time he applies for something. That’ll never be me, so I’m trying not to dwell on it but I just want to know why I keep getting rejected so I can improve.
I guess I’ll keep spamming then haha, I’ve only applied to like 7, so I should multiply that number. Thank you! I feel so alone sometimes in this stuff, it’s comforting to know that this isn’t uncommon. I just feel like on here people make it sound like being at a target makes everything a walk in the park (yes, makes it substantially easier than a non target but it’s still not handed to you or anything).
how did you go from rejected from a bazillion to only applying to 7 dude. I truly hope you’re not feeling discouraged just from that.
Not trying to be a downer but it is literally just a numbers game. Took me 40+ applications just to get a first round, my main advice is just to keep preparing for an interview. I only got to two interview processes whole last recruiting cycle & got two offers. You just need 1 yes, even at the expense of 200 no’s.
I guess I’ll keep spamming then haha, I’ve only applied to like 7, so I should multiply that number. Thank you! I feel so alone sometimes in this stuff, it’s comforting to know that this isn’t uncommon. I just feel like on here people make it sound like being at a target makes everything a walk in the park (yes, makes it substantially easier than a non target but it’s still not handed to you or anything).
That's quite common to experience. Ask anyone - they likely applied to hundreds of places, done tons of interviews and most would be rejections. You likely applied to colleges recently, and applying for internships is somewhat of a similar process - it requires more applications and effort, but you can incrementally revise your resume, interview responses etc.
Also have some folk give you feedback on your resume - there could be stuff you could phrase better to make it more relevant to the roles you're applying for.
Everyone I’m with seems to get what they want so much more easily. I have a friend whose entire family (dad, mom, brother) is finance and he just gets free coaching all day pretty much. This is not me whining, it’s just that most people I’m with have those connections. I do agree that my friends who don’t have a much more similar experience to me. It just sucks because I finally made it here by working my ass off in HS, but there are people who never had to fight for something. Not something I can change though, and I should still work hard regardless of other people.
Noticed that in college as well - many students seemed to already know how to build dcfs by sophomore year. I do not think everyone necessarily grew up in environments where they had immediate knowledge of finance, but rather they took courses or read books to learn about the industry, financial modeling etc. You can learn and discuss with people in school or older students as well.
There are some courses on this forum and other courses that provide insight on what job search is like. Also BIWS has a course that helps with interview q&a, modeling, general excel knowledge, and other relevant stuff that's likely more helpful for recruiting than any class you take in college.
I am booking some help through my college for this though, hopefully that helps. Thank you so much!!
You are just a freshmen so now is the time to address your weaknesses and practice. Most people including myself get rejected for most of the things they apply. I would highly suggest you go the cold emailing route to go work at a boutique bank since the job portal/corporate route didn't work out for you. Good luck.
I’m confused about the cold emailing thing. Do I email them explicitly asking for something, or do I just chat then ask for opportunities at the end?
Most people, even the top students who landed an internship at a bb or eb, often only had 1-2 offers and were declined by possibly 20+ other firms. There is a lot of effort and grit needed to get into these firms, and chance can play a role in the process - maybe you played football and the final round MD used to as well, so you spend 5 minutes talking about that, or maybe you chat with someone who you had little in common with or generally didn’t click with. You don’t really know who you’ll be chatting with, but if you luck out with someone who resonates with you more, that could be why you receive or don’t receive an offer.
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