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Ask HN: How have you turned a rejection into an offer?

1 points by brailsafe ↗ HN
I've recently been rejected after a number of interviews for the nth time, and I plan on attempting to persuade them otherwise, because why not? Have any of you successfully negotiated your way out of a rejection?

7 comments

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Hackbraten
There are probably more than enough potential employers who’d be happy to have you.

Why would you choose the one that clearly isn’t?

brailsafe
That doesn't appear to be the case, and I've been out of work for over a year. I'm clearly doing something wrong. That said, I've already spent a lot of time with these interviews, so it's worth a shot to send one more email. It's not like I sent out a bunch of applications and only care about the ones that rejected me at first glance.
readonthegoapp
i tried this once recently -- my email was just ignored. :-D

but i appreciate the hustle - i would do it again.

i think the hiring process is - i mean it's hard to put an actual percentage on it - but 50% completely arbitrary.

or 100% partially arbitrary.

in this cycle, i was offered lead technical role (at a serious database tech company), and rejected for a much more junior tech support role -- because i didn't know enough sql. :-D

you can't make this shit up.

i think half the people i interview with are legit stupid.

maybe that's a bit strong of a word, but i use it in an all-encompassing sense -- stupid, naive, incompetent, lazy, B or C players, etc., some combination of all of the above -- just not people who i would respect on a technical or high-performing-professional level.

as very flawed human beings deserving of the same dignity as everyone else?

of course.

point is, you may be doing something wrong.

or you might just be having a bad run, maybe a bit too picky, maybe there's a pandemic and now you're not just competing with other upper-class white males from America but with everyone from all over the world.

ping me if you want a second opinion on your job search/process.

i started as a dev, then support, then product, now tam.

Hackbraten
To clarify: when you said “rejected after a number of interviews for the nth time,” you didn’t mean those n rejections all came from the same company?

If so, then I misread your original post.

brailsafe
No I meant there have been multiple sets of multiple interviews, never at the same company.
mdolah
I've never been able to convince a place to hire me after being rejected, but I have been contacted by companies some time later to interview again if I got far in the process.

Specifically, this happened to me when the candidate that got hired actually got promoted so the position opened up again, but by that time, I had already gotten a new job, so I turned it down

brailsafe
Is there anything that you've tried in this respect?