Rejection is never easy.

When all you want to do is start a new career in the medical devices, life sciences, or pharmaceutical sector, every rejection can feel like a step back from your goals. However, the unfortunate truth is it takes anywhere between 21 and 80 applications on average just to get a single job offer.

Creating a great cover letter and CV, mastering the interview process, and working with the right recruitment team will improve your chances of getting more offers. However, there’s nothing you can do to eliminate the risk of rejection.

What you can do, however, is learn how to effectively “bounce back” from each “no”.

Here’s what you can do when you don’t get the job.

1. Heal and Refresh your Mindset

First, it’s important to be realistic. Rejection will always sting, particularly when it means you’re missing out on an important step in your career. It’s okay to give yourself a moment to feel disappointed or upset about not getting a job. Just don’t let yourself wallow for too long.

Acknowledge your disappointment, then work on getting your mindset back on track. Rather than beating yourself up for all the things that went wrong during the application process, take this moment as an opportunity to learn.

Remind yourself most jobs in competitive areas like pharmaceuticals and medical devices get hundreds of applications. You’re not the first to be rejected from a killer role, and you definitely won’t be the last.

2. Look for Things You Could Have Done Better

Once you’ve had a moment to recover, look back over the job application process, and ask yourself what you could have done better. If you’re already working with a professional recruitment agency, you could ask them to request feedback on your behalf. Alternatively, respond to the rejection email or message asking for any advice on how you can improve in future.

In some cases, if you’re nervous about getting a particular job, you might find it helpful to ask a question about your performance during the final Q&A section of the interview. For instance, ask, “Can you think of a reason I might not be offered this position?” This allows you to clear up any miscommunications or issues before the interview is over.

Even asking yourself what you might have done better in hindsight can give you some important areas to focus on when you’re preparing for your next interview. For instance, could you have customised your cover letter a little more or shown a different attitude during an interview?

3. Create a Plan for Fixing The Things in Your Control

Missing out on a job offer doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done something wrong. Hiring managers use a variety of factors to determine who they’re going to hire. Sometimes, you may miss out on an offer because someone else went to a better school or made the interviewer smile more often.

However, there are cases where you may fix some issues with the application and interview process. For instance, you can:

• Look at your CV and cover letter: Are you absolutely certain your CV and cover letter are getting the right information across about your experiences and background? Are you customising each application to suit the needs of the specific company?
• Consider your network: How many people do you have to sing your praises in the industry if you need help standing out? Do you have the right collection of references?
• Upgrade your professional brand: What do hiring managers and employers see when they look you up online? Do you have a fantastic professional brand, complete with strong social profiles?
• Improve your interview skills: How do you come across during an interview? Do you need to work on interviewing with hiring managers over video? What kind of steps can you take to improve your body language in an interview?
• Work with the right people: Professional recruitment teams can work with you to help you find the kind of jobs you’re best suited for, which can reduce your risk of rejection. These professionals are also excellent at helping you plan for a successful application.

4. Get Back on the Job Hunt

Taking the time to learn from each rejection is important. Sometimes, you’ll discover you need to make a few changes before you start looking for jobs again, like developing your technical skills in certain areas of life sciences or medical devices. Other times, all you’ll need to do is brush up on your interview and job application skills.

Whatever happens, don’t allow the initial sting of rejection to hold you back for too long. The more you avoid applying for new jobs and opportunities because you’re nervous about what happened “last time”, the more likely it is your confidence will dwindle.

As soon as you can, go back to your recruitment team and start looking for new opportunities to take advantage of. You can even look into getting in the talent pipelines for different companies that might not be looking for someone with your skills just yet.

What Next?

A recruitment team with expertise in the Pharma, Life Sciences, and Medical devices sector will help you to pinpoint the best job opportunities for someone with your skills. This should improve your chances of making the right impression on a hiring manager.

You can even work with your recruitment team to improve your CV or interview skills. Kinetic has been working with Pharma and medical devices companies for over ten years, focusing within the UAE landscape. Contact us today at (+971 (0)4 442 0921) or over email!

Chris

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