-I was rejected by Clearer Thinking’s regranting program
Another frustrating, non-EA rejection:
-I had spent lots of my spare time giving my boss’ boss actionable and data driven insights on how to deliver better results. I had been part of a management training. When my boss quit and I applied to become the lead of my team, I was rejected. That was very disappointing.
I should note that I am steeped in privilege. But personally, for me, that actually makes it hurt a bit extra as I cannot say I might have been rejected due to ethnicity, gender, etc. Even with a potential unfair advantage I was rejected so it is probably simply down to skills and experience in a big way.
That said, one method I have used for coping is finding some area where I am highly sought after. In my case it is project management or sales in cleantech. After some rejections I take a decent paying job in this sector where it is easy to do well. The salary in addition to the positive feedback really helps me remind myself that I am competent.
Another thing I did was starting forecasting on GJOpen (I think Metaculus is good too). Many of my lowest points in my career was when I thought something was about to go wrong, I provided solutions for averting such bad outcomes but then got punished for it. Having built a small but seemingly strong track record in forecasting was a very quick way for me to get extremely unbiased feedback on at least my ability to understand the world around me and gaining confidence that I should keep on flagging sorely needed improvements as long as the data/analysis I have used is on par with the work behind my forecasting.
Lastly, in one of the above rejections I really dug into the reason for the rejection and decided that I have actually improved in that area and I learnt that maybe I should present myself differently in applications going forward and building evidence to show that I actually do well in this field and avoid referencing the story about my old, naive me.
Another tip: Go slow. Be gentle on yourself. If you are rejected e.g. when trying to make a career change, but you have a current, decent paying career you are good at—don’t burn out trying to improve yourself and apply to a ton of positions. Take time off, take care of yourself. Most of you reading this probably have 30+ years of your career left. If you take it slow for a year or 2, only applying to 2 jobs per year that is fine and perhaps even beneficial. There are also many in EA circles who say that building on your strengths might be the best strategy. So if you have this job that you are good at, there is perhaps value in just sticking with that for a while until you find a way to work in a similar capacity in an EA org.
A few EA-relevant rejections:
-I was rejected from a CE incubation program
-I was rejected by Clearer Thinking’s regranting program
Another frustrating, non-EA rejection:
-I had spent lots of my spare time giving my boss’ boss actionable and data driven insights on how to deliver better results. I had been part of a management training. When my boss quit and I applied to become the lead of my team, I was rejected. That was very disappointing.
I should note that I am steeped in privilege. But personally, for me, that actually makes it hurt a bit extra as I cannot say I might have been rejected due to ethnicity, gender, etc. Even with a potential unfair advantage I was rejected so it is probably simply down to skills and experience in a big way.
That said, one method I have used for coping is finding some area where I am highly sought after. In my case it is project management or sales in cleantech. After some rejections I take a decent paying job in this sector where it is easy to do well. The salary in addition to the positive feedback really helps me remind myself that I am competent.
Another thing I did was starting forecasting on GJOpen (I think Metaculus is good too). Many of my lowest points in my career was when I thought something was about to go wrong, I provided solutions for averting such bad outcomes but then got punished for it. Having built a small but seemingly strong track record in forecasting was a very quick way for me to get extremely unbiased feedback on at least my ability to understand the world around me and gaining confidence that I should keep on flagging sorely needed improvements as long as the data/analysis I have used is on par with the work behind my forecasting.
Lastly, in one of the above rejections I really dug into the reason for the rejection and decided that I have actually improved in that area and I learnt that maybe I should present myself differently in applications going forward and building evidence to show that I actually do well in this field and avoid referencing the story about my old, naive me.
Another tip: Go slow. Be gentle on yourself. If you are rejected e.g. when trying to make a career change, but you have a current, decent paying career you are good at—don’t burn out trying to improve yourself and apply to a ton of positions. Take time off, take care of yourself. Most of you reading this probably have 30+ years of your career left. If you take it slow for a year or 2, only applying to 2 jobs per year that is fine and perhaps even beneficial. There are also many in EA circles who say that building on your strengths might be the best strategy. So if you have this job that you are good at, there is perhaps value in just sticking with that for a while until you find a way to work in a similar capacity in an EA org.