Dear Verity… How wonderful do you have to be to get a job in Television?
Dear Verity,
I feel gloomy today. It’s thirty one degrees in London and I wore a tank top with a picture of Flounder from The Little Mermaid on it to work and yet I still feel enormously gloomy. The reason is one I am all too familiar with. An email arrived in my inbox this afternoon as unwelcome as that special time of the month – a rejection for a job I had recently applied for. There had been a ‘get to know you’ phone chat, positive sounds on the other end of the line were made, vague promises of a forthcoming face to face interview were suggested. And yet I was still expecting this email, the one that reads ‘thanks, but no thanks’.
Like a lot of us, as a young woman I am predisposed to giving myself a pretty hard time when these things happen in life. I’m on the wrong side of my twenties now, but the sentiment is universal – applying for jobs is really tough! Being told « NO » post-interview is really tough. Especially if you felt prepared and confident (a feat of achievement in itself for me) and you had gone into battle expecting it to end victoriously.
After I left University, I decided I wanted to move to glorious London and attempt to get an entry level job in the entertainment industry. I love movies and really love television – should be a no brainer. I hail from a small city in the east of England and was not inspired by anyone in school to have any sort of ambition. Fast forward a handful of years later and the list of companies I have managed to get my ‘foot in the door’ with reads like the « week of deals » bit of The Hollywood Reporter. I could write a lightly satirical book of essays detailing my interview adventures. People would describe my prose style as ‘a frothy combination of Carrie Fisher and Mindy Kaling’ and I would remain humble whilst making a mental list of all the HR reps who sent me job rejections in the past whom I would email a link to my glowing review in The New York Times.
While I do count myself lucky to have gotten in the room at many of those places, especially considering the amount of competition and bright young things residing and working in London. No matter how many times I’ve been told I didn’t get the job, didn’t make it to the next stage of the recruitment process, it always feels like being told I’m not pretty. Which is obviously ridiculous as I am a total babe.
Looks notwithstanding, even now as a seasoned rejectee, I am admittedly still not hardened to it and I harang myself for not being ‘good enough’ and then a little bit more for letting it upset me as much as it does. As a self proclaimed fangirl of words, more often than not the language used in these emails « regrettably on this occasion we have found someone who is a slightly better fit for the role » tends to infuriate. What made this person a better fit specifically, could we just see a copy of their CV? An audio transcript of their interview wouldn’t be too much to pass along would it? For future endeavours – so we can hear exactly what they have that we don’t and then we can try to crowbar some of their lives into ours. What would Lorelai do, I have asked myself. Well, she would probably begrudgingly agree to let Richard and Emily loan her some money if she was having trouble paying for her house. What would Rory do? It would inevitably turn out that Richard knew a guy on the Exec team and he would put in a call and she would have the job.
(Plots for episodes of Gilmore Girls are clearly taking up an appropriate amount of space in my brain.)
The point is, despite taking it personally, we are not alone in how we feel. Because for every one person who gets that job, there are many others who applied just like us who didn’t. Who got to the very stage we did. Who feel they tried their hardest just as we do.
Remember when Ross says to Rachel “You’re gonna go on like, a thousand interviews before you get a job.”
That is completely true! Ross Gellar makes sense again! Don’t be deterred! You are brilliant, it just means that there are quite literally thousands of other equally brilliant people applying for the very same job and one of you is bound to get lucky. My amazingly supportive and all round badass Mother reminded me this week that I have potentially forty plus years left of my working life. Hooray! But lurking beneath this depressing thought lies some welcome relief. Our generation will be working longer than any have done previously and therefore we have been given the gift of time. We can change our career path as much as we like. It’s okay to feel disappointed and it’s okay to feel discouraged. Cry and vent, use your support network of family and friends. I am extremely lucky to have mine and my boyfriend’s shoulder is particularly good to have a nice old weep on because of all that gym training he is so fond of. Declare victory in whatever way you can, think about what you have learned from each experience and keep going! You’ll be proud of yourself when you do.
Yours sincerely,
Lauren Pinnington
Dear Lauren,
Thanks for your letter and the advice. Just like Wonder woman before you, victory is everywhere in sight. You are right. You just have to open your eyes and see it.
Getting up in the morning is a victory. Getting a job interview is a victory. Your boyfriend’s shoulder is definitely a victory. Well done !
🙂
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