Have you ever received a “regret” letter from a company you wanted to work for?  Have you been rejected by someone you wanted to date?  How about being turned down to qualify for a home mortgage loan?  For those of you who are at least 25 years old, I can guarantee you that most of us have had this experience in our lives.

Rejection is hard…but for a few of us, rejection can be difficult to overcome.  International Country Star Singer Taylor Swift said this about rejection and I quote “You have people come into your life shockingly and surprisingly.  You have losses that you never thought you’d experience.  You have rejection and you have to learn how to deal with that and how to get up the next day and go on with it.” end quote.

As our national economy continues to rebound from a low inventory of good jobs, millions of unemployed workers struggle to maintain a positive outlook on their career.  For 13 months, I was a bona-fide member of the national jobless club.  Though I did not feel proud about this period of my life, I enjoyed some of the club’s perks:

• I was able to opt out of the all-inclusive morning and evening city rush hours
• It allowed me to enjoy the pleasures of cooking at home – which was therapeutic to me
• I could truly enjoy my mornings without feeling rushed
• I could read books that I purchased over the years but hadn’t made time to read them
• I experienced the balance of indoor exercising and outdoor walking

Yet still, I along with millions of other unemployed adults burned the midnight oil to search for a job that secures us the privilege to live in a descent home and provide basic needs for our families.  How do we keep our momentum going after receiving many rejection letters?  For me, I relied on a higher power to siphon a form of positive strength.  And through this strength, I discovered three steps to use and for some of you, I hope this will deactivate your jobless membership status.

The Recruitment Process – Employers are always looking for what they need from an individual who holds the right skill set of the position.  They are also relying on personal connections, social networking websites, and someone that ‘fits’ their particular corporate culture.

The Reaction Process – The way you react to a job interview is important!  I’m not talking about how you express your excitement about receiving an interview, but to handle your response in a professional way – before and after the interview process.  You should study the interviewer for the meeting.  The best way is to know the interviewer is to search the person on Linked In and collect basic information.  Say the person “like” Starbucks on his/her social network webpage.  After the meeting, you can send a ‘Thank-You’ note to the interview and enclose a Starbucks gift card in the attempt to secure a second interview.

The Re-entry or Re-emerge Process – Once you’ve been offered the position, you feel excited and ready to go.  But you’ve been weathered, emotionally bruised for a period of time – depending on the gap of time you’ve been unemployed.  Imagine yourself on the first day of the job and you introduce yourself to the new team.  Everybody will want to know what you’ve done before coming to the job.  Whether you may or may not know it, some of us will continue to wear this woe-is-me on our face and use it like a weekly church sermon.  Get rid of it!  It’s a chapter now closed – look ahead!

I believe this three stage process will give you the confidence for a new makeover!