Job hunting can be a tough and exhausting journey, especially when you don’t land the offer after pouring so much energy into interview preparation. The sting of rejection can impact your confidence, motivation, and even your sense of direction. But don’t worry—there’s a way forward.

In this episode, Sarah breaks down eight actionable steps to help you bounce back stronger. From managing the emotions of rejection and regaining your confidence to identifying common pitfalls and crafting a stronger personal brand, you’ll discover practical strategies to improve your interview performance. By the end, you’ll be ready to reframe rejection, embrace resilience, and approach your job search with renewed energy and clarity.

If you’re feeling stuck after a job rejection, this episode will guide you toward turning the experience into a stepping stone for success.

Show Notes

[00:00:00] Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable

[00:01:00] Why rejection can feel so hard and its impact on job seekers.

[00:03:00] Step 1: Take time to recharge and regain perspective.

[00:04:30] Step 2: Get actionable feedback and how to use it wisely.

[00:06:00] Step 3: Analyze your fit and identify what’s missing.

[00:07:00] Step 4: Review and refine your interview technique.

[00:08:00] Step 5: Understand your personal brand and create impact.

[00:10:00] Step 6: Reconnect with your confidence and quiet your inner critic.

[00:11:00] Step 7: Build resilience to navigate rejection effectively.

[00:12:30] Step 8: Get back out there and continue your job search journey.

[00:14:00] The importance of seeking help, including interview coaching options.

Useful Links

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Related Episode: [Episode 8: How to Be Successful at Your Next Interview]

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If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

. Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

2

leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

5

I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Today's topic, is all about how to cope

if you don't get the job offer, because

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let's face it, if you're job searching

at the moment it can feel tough.

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Often there are three or four

or more interview rounds.

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You might be doing a presentation,

a pitch, you might be doing a

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task or tests, and it can just

feel, it's taking a lot of.

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energy, a lot of your time, a lot

of your focus to do the necessary

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preparation to try and get that job offer.

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And then when you go through all of that

and you don't get that job offer when

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you're told you're close, but you're not

close enough, it can feel Devastating.

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It can feel frustrating.

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It can make you angry.

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It can, be, sometimes , the straw

that breaks the camel's back when

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you've got a busy job anyway, and

then you've put all that effort in

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and you don't get the job offer.

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, it can feel really disheartening.

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So it's good to be able to think about

how you're going to bounce back from

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that, particularly if you know in

the past, that's happened to you and

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it's had an impact on you, then it's

definitely good to be thinking, okay,

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what do I need to do to look after

myself to make sure that actually I can

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use this to make sure the next round

of interviews I get the job offer?

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Because rejection's, hard, isn't it?

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Whatever kind of rejection

it is it's hard to deal with.

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Having a plan in place to know

you can manage it is helpful.

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Because also going through that

whole interview round and not

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getting a job offer can start to

impact your career confidence.

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It can start to impact your motivation

for the job search and, the energy

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and time you're going to put into it.

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And we don't want that to happen

because if you're job searching, you're

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job searching for a reason, and it's

either because you want a change,

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you want to leave your current role

for some reason, or, you're ready

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to get that next challenging role.

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So we don't want it to impact negatively

your ability to secure the role that

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is going to be really right for you.

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I've got eight steps you can think about

to help you bounce back and increase your

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resilience when you're job searching.

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The first thing to say is just to take

some time to regroup, rather than pushing

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on with the next application, maybe to

step away from the job search for a short

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period to re engage with the things

that bring you joy, the things probably

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you haven't had time to do because

you've been focusing on doing all your

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interview prep but to look at how you

can, fill your cup, recharge, and not

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have to think about job search even if

it's just a weekend, but just to step

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away and give yourself a bit of space.

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And while you're doing that, try and

remind yourself to get perspective on it.

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Cause at the time it can feel that

it's personal, but obviously, with

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perspective, it's not personal.

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That there will be other

opportunities that come along.

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And I know when I look back on some

of the jobs that I didn't get, even

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though I might have been devastated

at the time, I can look back and think

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actually it was the right decision

because I wasn't ready or I wasn't the

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right person for that particular role.

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Knowing that actually, Maybe it's happened

for a good reason and the next role that

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you apply for is going to be the one.

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The second thing and this is

not surprising for me to say

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this, but is to get feedback.

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Now it can be hard to sometimes get

feedback from interview panels, but

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if you are going for a senior role,

they should be prepared to give you

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interview feedback from either the

recruiter or from the interview panel.

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And now.

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The thing with feedback, it can be mixed,

particularly for interviews, because

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obviously they have to come up with a

reason why they didn't offer you the job.

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You do want to be mindful that you

might not want to necessarily accept

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everything that they're saying about why

they didn't give you the role, because

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they'll probably say something else.

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Again, they have to come up with a reason.

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With any kind of feedback, it's

always thinking, does this resonate?

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Do I want to act on it?

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And not just accept that it's truth.

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But there can be, really useful

information in that feedback about

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why you weren't offered the role.

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It's definitely worth asking for it,

even if it feels a bit uncomfortable,

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so you can use it to improve your

interview performance for the next time.

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Then the third point is to

analyze what's going on.

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Asking yourself how much of a match

this role that you just applied for that

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you didn't get is for you and trying

to understand what might be happening.

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I've got a little example for you here.

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I had a client I was working with

where she was going for a head

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of department role, where she

would have to set the vision.

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She would have to set the

strategy for her department.

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And her real strength had been in

making the strategy operational.

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And delivering so having real

impact through her delivery.

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And she was being shortlisted for

roles because she was so successful

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at turning that strategy into reality.

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making it operational.

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But what she was realizing when she did

that analysis was that actually what

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she wasn't doing was convincing the

interview panel that she could do the

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vision and that she could do the strategy.

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And when you're going for your first

leadership role, it can be, that's

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the thing you have to be mindful of

because you might be just tempted

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to talk about the operations and

not demonstrate the strategy piece.

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So that was really helpful for

her to then at her next interview,

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be much more mindful about

showing her strategic skills.

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Doing that analysis can be really helpful.

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And then the next point is to

review your interview technique.

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Now your interview technique is probably

working well because you're getting to

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the final stage or stages of the process.

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So it might be thinking about

tweaking things and noticing Maybe

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even through having a mock interview

that there are certain things that

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you might be saying that aren't that

helpful in the actual interview.

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I had another client I

was working with where.

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She was in a leadership role, but when

she was talking about what she was

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doing with her team, she was very much

talking about the team successes and

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emphasizing the team part of having

that impact because one of her core

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values was collaboration and teamwork.

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She found it really hard to say

I, but when she realized that

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actually for the interview panel

to be able to offer her the job.

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They needed to understand what her role

was within that team experience and that

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she had to name that for them, that they

couldn't assume that she was doing it.

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She actually had to be

really explicit about it.

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It was a game changer for

her and it helped her up her

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game in her next interview.

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Then our fifth point is to think about how

you're creating impact because at the end

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of you part of that is about your impact.

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, the research showed 26%, the

decision about the job offer was

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around executive presence and part of

executive presence is understanding

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what your USP is, your unique selling

points, what your personal brand is,

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and then how you communicate that.

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Doing some work around that and being

able to connect it to how you add value

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to the business can be really powerful.

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I had another client I was working with.

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we were doing some coaching,

some leadership coaching.

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And he was also going for a

new role at the same time.

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And it was a Development Director role.

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He was on the sixth round with

this particular organization.

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And in our coaching sessions,

we'd been doing some work around

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his personal leadership brand.

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And he'd never even thought about a

personal brand and what that meant and how

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he might showcase that through his work.

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And in that sixth round of the interview,

which fortunately was just after our

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session, he was asked a specific question

about what his personal brand was.

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So he was able to talk coherently

about how his personal brand aligned

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with that organization's brand and

what they were trying to achieve.

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And he then did, after interview

seven, get the job offer.

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But if he hadn't , had that thinking time

around what his personal brand actually

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was, he probably would have stumbled over

that particular interview question and

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not been able to link it directly to the

organization and showing that coherence.

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It's definitely worth thinking about,

okay, how do I want to create impact

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and how can I do that through being

really clear about my personal brand?

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And then the sixth point is to think

about boosting your confidence because

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we know that going through the whole job

search piece, the whole interview thing,

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it can take its toll on your confidence.

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If you're not getting the

outcomes that you want.

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It can make you start to question

yourself to say, to allow that inner

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critic to be vocal, to let those

doubts creep in about your ability.

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And we don't want that to happen because

I know as a coach that the, mindset and

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your confidence levels are as important

as your ability to, use the star

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technique and showcase your achievements

in a competency based interview.

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It's really important to pay attention

to that, mindset and confidence piece

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and put some things in to support that.

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You can just think about how can

I reconnect with my successes and

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remind myself of all the great

things that I've done in my career.

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Maybe I want to do some affirmation

work to boost my mindset.

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Maybe I want to do some work around

my inner critic to not let that voice

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have air time and to counteract it with

evidence about how great I am in reality.

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Episode eight, how to be

successful at your next interview

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covers this area in more detail.

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So if you want to work on your mindset

and become more positive about interviews,

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Then tune into that episode and I will

put a link in the show notes for you.

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Paying attention to that piece

is important in terms of bouncing

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back after the interviews.

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And that leads me into point seven,

which is to increase your resilience,

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because you can't change the outcome.

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You don't have any control over

their decision making process, apart

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from what you present at interview.

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But you can control how

you're going to respond to it.

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Being able to see it as an

opportunity to learn, to reflect.

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Find your interview technique

and your interview performance is

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the best way to respond to it.

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But you also want to acknowledge the

feelings that will come up for it.

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Giving yourself permission to feel

disappointed, to feel frustrated or

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angry or whatever it might be that you're

feeling, but not to allow yourself to

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stay and dwell in that, but to actually.

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move yourself into, okay let me

think about what I can learn from

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this experience and maybe go through

the previous six points to give

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yourself that opportunity to Take from

it what you can and learn from it.

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You're not going to repeat those

mistakes into the next interview.

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And then the final point is to get back

out there, because you don't want this

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experience to put you off job searching

and end up staying in a job where you're

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plateauing or you're feeling frustrated,

or you just know it's not the right

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job for you or the right organization.

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I do know, people who've stayed in

roles because they hate the job search

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and the interview process so much,

they would rather stay in a role that

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they don't enjoy than go through it.

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And I feel that, that to me is

heartbreaking, really, because the thing

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I love about interview coaching is there's

some really simple techniques that you can

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use that can really increase your impacts.

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at interview.

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And there's lots of things you can do

to make the job search a much more

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enjoyable experience, it is important to

keep going to not let that experience put

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you off, but to get help if you need it.

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And interview coaching is available.

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If it's something that you feel you need

help with to either turn the dial on your

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interview performance so that you are more

likely to get the job offer at the next.

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Round or if you feel I really need some

support with interviews because I feel

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like my confidence has taken a knock.

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I do offer interview coaching..

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You don't just have to

keep plowing on that.

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You can actually do things to

really enhance your performance.

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I think is really helpful in terms

of that whole bouncing back as well.

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If you are going through the job

search experience at the moment.

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I know it's tough.

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So do, look after yourselves, make sure

you're putting lots of good things in

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to, to give you, boosts during this time.

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And obviously do get in touch if you

need support with either job search.

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or the interview experience.

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This episode is also available

to watch on LinkedIn live.

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And I'll put a link to the

episode in the show notes.

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And while you're over on LinkedIn,

if we're not connected, do

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send me a connection request.

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I'd love to be connected to you.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co uk, and I'll

also put links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.