Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Dasha Sur

Every experience is unique. Every negative experience, like rejection, could be questioned and turned into a positive one by changing a personal attitude towards it. Being trapped by consequences of the rejection, we tend to blame ourselves for the mistakes we make. But what if there is a chance to turn mistakes into lessons? I think that acceptance is the key that can open million doors.

I don’t remember the name of the woman who was the interviewer for my first job in an advertising agency. She cast a look at my high-heeled shoes with apprehension and decided to reject me before she opened my resume. If she would be turned the first page, she would learned that, I was from a small city and I had worked three jobs to get a chance to earn my international education because all my life I dreamed to be like her. But she certainly decided not to know that I had spent last six months searching for my first job in advertising. I wrote more than five hundred letters to international advertising agencies and I got only two answers. Finally, after the phone interview, I was allowed to meet with the director. All my family and friends supported me in this endeavor. My older sister gifted me her lucky shoes. The day of the meeting, I drove six hours from my small city to the capital, spent two hours waiting for her, and I got only five minutes of the shortest interview in my life. I got the e-mail with the rejection before I was back home.

I did not expect that first impression would play such a dramatic role in my first career endeavor. I was disappointed, angry at myself, and emotionally blocked until I began to learn from my mistakes. First, the experience made me realize that I still have a lot of work to do on my personal representation. That is why I decided to shift my focus from theory to practice, giving more attention and energy to my personal style. Second, I realized that the reason for my disappointment was my over expectations about my vis-à-vis. So I began to research attentively about the employees. But the most difficult issue was to overcome shyness for the leadership in conversation. I used every chance of the small talk with new people and I was spending hours, practicing deeper professional conversations with my friends, who worked in creative industry. Thanks to social network I found many people who supported me and made me believe in myself again. Finally, I found myself pretty confident to move forward.

Since I had another offer, I had one more chance to find my job in advertising. That time, I was lucky to speak with very intelligent lady, who allowed me to demonstrate my skills, knowledge and motivation. During the conversation I was treated as a professional and surrounded by the atmosphere of compassion and appreciation. Certainly, I felt comfortable enough to handle my emotions and show my best. In the end of our talk I was accepted on for offered position.

In the next seven years, I was lucky to work with the best people in the industry. I had a very exiting journey from a Junior Traffic manager to a Producer, and I changed three different work places. During these, years I had many achievements and falls, conflict situations and celebrations. All these experiences taught about the most important skill of a successful leader — to elevate each other and be tolerant. I still think that the most useful lesson about the compassion was my first interview. As the events that happened to me changed not only my life, but were projected to the lives of many people whom I interacted , it is very important to be curious about other human-beings and treat others like you wanted to be treated.

Thus, based on my experience the rejection is one more reason to rethink personal attitudes, make correction of the personal goals, and go forward. Thinking about negative experiences as a part of learning we can conclude that having bad experience is the better option then having no experiences at all.

Every experience is unique. was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Every experience is unique.

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