RE: Your application 32456

“Dear Ms Melita, 

Thank you very much for the interest you show for an employment in our company. 

Unfortunately, we cannot offer you an employment in our company at this time. But we are confident that your qualification and knowledge will allow you to develop yourself with regard to your profession and according to your wishes. 

We wish you good luck for your future in your private and professional life. “

It’s not easy or pleasant to receive such emails. However it’s quite inevitable when looking for a job. Like with any other rejection we need to be able to handle them properly and make the best out of the situation. Otherwise our chances to find our best potential job might drop considerably.

First of all, before starting the search it’s important to set our expectations right. That means we should expect the following:    

• We might be looking for several months before finding the job we want
• Inevitably we will receive messages like the one from above
• It could happen that we go to two or three interviews with the same company and still receive at the end a message telling us that someone else was chosen for the job
• For certain applications we will have no feedback at all
• We need to put considerable effort and to invest time and energy in order to prepare our applications, search for jobs, send them and constantly try to improve our CVs and letters of intent

Realizing all this from the beginning will not make the search process easier but will help us keep up our level of energy and confidence. One of the common mistakes people do when looking for a job is creating a CV and letter of intent and use them as they are during the whole process.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results doesn't make too much sense. Therefore applying with the same CV after receiving negative feedback it might not be the best idea.

We will never know exactly why we were rejected no matter how much we think and speculate about it. Instead of spending time thinking at the reasons the employer had, it would be more efficient to try and review our CV and letter of intent and improve it constantly.

The online environment is full with information on how to create CVs and letters of intent. All we need to do is to adapt the information to our situation and try different styles until we find the one that works for us. What we should not forget is that our CV is the first thing the employer will know about us. Even if it might sound obvious, the photo we choose to put in this document needs to be a professional one adequate for a business relation.

Having someone else checking our CV might also be very useful. If we don’t have any friends who work in HR we can look for someone who has recent experience with job applications or contact HR professionals who would be willing to evaluate our CV. We should never be happy with just one opinion. People have different experiences and points of view regarding this aspect even if they work in HR.

The quality of our application is the only thing we can really influence. All other things are speculations and suppositions.

When we understand that negative answers as well as positive ones are part of the recruitment process, our chances to go smoothly through it and to find the job that we really want will be definitely higher.  

Counter offers - never accept one

As tempting and flattering as it might be, accepting a counter offer is always a bad idea.

Usually a counter offer means more money and never the solution for the problems that make some quit. People decide to leave their companies for many reasons. No opportunity for development, poor management, no opportunity to promote, no one to learn from are just some of the reasons for which people decide to leave their jobs.

When we decide to quit and go to another company we are looking for all arguments that support our decision. Simultaneously we will try and find all the advantages offered by the future work place and there is for sure more to that than money. After all this process that basically makes us see ourselves  already in the new position it comes the counter offer that offers us more money in order to stay in the current role. This is the moment when doubt might appear especially if we have been in the company for a long period of time.

Doubting is dangerous. In my opinion, the best thing to do is to take the time, think it through and when we make a decision stick with it. That is the best decision we can possibly make. We should speak with whom we have to speak, read what we need to read, ask what we don't know, never assume things and when we are ready, decide on what to do. We don't need to be worried that we have made the wrong decision.

If we took your time to think it over than that is the right decision for us. No matter what happens next we will be ready to face it because we know that we have chosen that way. There is no way to foresee the future or to go back in the past. Therefore there is no point in thinking what it would have happened if we would have made a different decision.

I strongly believe that we should only use the past in order to learn. Once we have learned our lessons we should leave the past behind and focus on what we are living right now. Decisiveness is a characteristic appreciated by everyone because it’s easy to work with people who do what they say they will. These are the persons one can trust.

If we say we quit and then we change our mind, regardless the reason, we will become an employee that can't be trusted. What is even worse is that after a few months we will realize that money couldn't solve our problems that we’ve had in the company. Inevitably the search will start again.

On the other hand we should think why do managers make counter offers?  Because they have no one in this moment to replace us with. They are just buying some time until they will find the right person to replace us with. If we accept we will be the person that wanted to leave and that they can't trust anymore. We can say goodbye to promotion possibilities or assignments of interesting projects. All studies on this subject show that 80-90% of the people who accept a counter offer leave the company in the next year.

Hesitation is dangerous in any situation and especially when it comes to changing jobs. The best thing one can do is to take the necessary time to make what the right decision appears to be and to stick with it. That will be for sure the best decision that can be made.

Let’s talk about money

Asking for a raise is never easy and every one of us hopes that this will happen without us asking specifically for it. In reality, there are many situations in which we have to go and ask for the raise that we want.

The most difficult part for most of us is to express our arguments in a coherent way that will convince our manager. However, bringing the right arguments at the wrong moment will definitely not get us more money at the end of every month. 

Timing – the right moment

To know when it's the right moment we should always consider the internal rules. Is the company giving raises once a year, or after performance appraisals, or after a certain experience accumulated in the company? Knowing what the practices in our company are, we will also know how to choose your moment. If the company is offering raises only once a year, in January, it wouldn't make too much sense to go to your manager with this issue in May, for example. The best time to speak about this is 3-4 months before the moment when the increases are made or before the evaluation period so that the manager will have time to take some actions.

Besides the time of the year, it is also important to choose the right day and moment of the day. It would not be too wise to bring up this subject in an extremely busy day or when you know that our boss has many things on his mind. We need to set a meeting with our boss especially for this purpose. The last thing we want is to discuss with him spontaneously or in a meeting that is completely about something else.

Reasons – arguments reinforced with results

When it comes to arguments, we should take our time and do some homework. Arguments like, I know my colleague is earning more, my expenses have increased or it's been a year since the last increase won't be of much success. Objective arguments are the ones who will give you what you want. More responsibilities, revenue brought to the company, more knowledge for the company, improvement of some systems in the company, extraordinary performance that impacted the results if the company, successful projects are just some examples of arguments that will be taken into consideration by the management.

Plan – always have one

Knowing what we want and what we will do in case of a negative answer is also part of the preparation of our case.  Therefore, we should not go into the discussion without having in mind a reasonable amount of money we want as an increase. Obtaining information on what the market pays will help a lot. In case that we have a negative response, it might be a good idea to ask the manager what do we need to do in order get that raise and when would that be possible. This way we will know how to set our expectations.

Problems should never come alone

When signing a work contract the bargain is that the employee will fulfill certain responsibilities mentioned in the job description against a certain amount of money - the salary. However, fulfilling those specific responsibilities it's just the basic part of the contract. 

Employees are expected to act in the interest of the company, to work with others in order to reach company's goals, to use their knowledge and energy not only to solve specific work related issues but also to help improving the existing systems, processes, procedures so that the company's goals will be achieved.

Every time a work related situation needs to be solved and you can't solve it on your own or it's not in your competency to decide about what needs to be done, you naturaly go to your manager. You expect guidance from him and most of the times you expect a solution. 


Regardless of the job title, industry or type of qualification, when it comes to problem solving, any manager would like to see the same thing from their employees: involvement and initiative in problem solving. That’s why for every problem that you bring to our manager you should also have a possible solution, a point of view, a suggestion or anything that you thought about when trying to solve the problem. 

What would you do if you were in the shoes of your manager? What makes you think so? What are the arguments that could support such a decision?

Only after answering these questions you should go to your manager, present him the situation, what you see as a solution and what your arguments are. Your solution might be wrong but that's OK as long you have arguments to support it and you learn from this experience. By doing this exercise you will get better and in time you will be able to find on your own the best solutions. 

This proactive engagement in problem solving not only shows your commitment but also your courage to express your opinions and stand for them, your ability to find solutions and make decisions. You can ask your managers to decide about certain matters or to advise you. However, it’s always a bad idea to expect from them to entirely solve your problems without your input on that. 

Even if you are at the very beginning on a new position or in a new company you can still do your best to understand the problem so that you present it as good as possible and if the experience will allow you, maybe to come up with an idea on how to solve it. If you think the solution you found it's not that good, you should still tell our manager about it and explain your concerns. Let him know that you have put effort and tried to solve the problem before taking the easy way and asking him. 
On the long term, this way of working has many benefits and will definitely put you among the people that have higher chances of being promoted.