I got rejected for a job this week. One I really wanted.
It stings, and I won’t pretend it doesn’t.
The job market right now is objectively brutal. Unemployment numbers look okay on paper, but hiring rates are at their lowest in a decade. Applications disappear into black holes. “Ghost jobs” that were never real waste your time. The process drags on for months. It feels like a recession even if the stats say it’s not.
So here’s what I’m doing about it, because I write this newsletter to document the actual work of trying to be better, not to pretend I have it all figured out.
I’m leaning on what I control
Last week I wrote about men dropping out of the workforce when things get hard. About isolation and what happens when purpose disappears. Please read it. It’s bleak but important.
And, look, I still have a job. It’s funding is just tenuous, and any day federal officials could decide to turn off funding, which they are doing now. But I can’t control that or whether someone hires me. What I can control is whether and how I show up. Which is why I’m leaning into my running goals. So that’s what I’m doing, showing up.
That effort is giving me something back. My 200-meter repeats are getting more consistent. I’ve started adding 600-meter intervals. The splits are improving. I’m building something, even if it’s just fitness and the knowledge that I’m capable of showing up when things are hard. It’s not a new job, but it matters to me.
Community keeps showing up
A few weeks ago, a guy I’m connected to on LinkedIn pinged me about going for a run. He’s followed some of my Warm Current content there. So, because I’m trying to walk the talk, I said yes.
We connected last weekend for a trail run up Tiger Mountain east of Seattle. It was a good run, and good conversation. We agreed to do it again. Even though he’s an ultra runner spending lots of time on trails and my current goals are all on the track, I’ll occasionally meet him to run. It’ll be cool to see how the relationship develops.
The hours we spent together were good for me. He talked about his career trajectory, and his wife’s, and how they had made various changes to their lives over the years. I marveled at the boldness of their choices (global travel, blending their families, exploring a move to cash in on the equity in their home). It made me consider ways I could be more bold, too.
Then this week, a guy I’ve never met who works somewhere in my 56,000-employee organization reached out via email. He wants to create a community of communications folks. Would I be interested in coffee to talk about it?
I said yes.
When dealing with rejection, my instinct is to withdraw. But I said yes because I just wrote about how isolation is the trap, and I am not interested in being trapped. So I replied before I could overthink it or ignore it. Maybe that connection will lead to something good, too.
Onward
I’m really disappointed about the job. I’m not going to pretend otherwise, or frame it as some blessing in disguise. It’s just a setback. But setbacks don’t mean you stop trying. They mean you keep showing up for the things you can control.
That’s the work I’m doing. Nothing dramatic. Just showing up consistently even when things aren’t going my way.
My goal race is in July. I’ll keep training for it. I’ll meet that guy for coffee. I’ll run trails with the ultra runner. And of course I’ll keep applying for jobs. And somewhere in there, something will break the right direction.
Or it won’t, and I’ll keep going anyway.
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