Connect the dots, said Steve Jobs

If you’re one of the thousands of young graduates that have recently applied for a job, then you most likely know the feeling; the feeling of disappointment when you found out that you’re not going to get the job (internship) you’ve applied for. The bitter feeling takes over you and you start questioning your skills, personality and even the significance of your achievements. The feeling is even worse if the job was one that you appreciated, sincerely wanted and believed to be experienced enough for.

Most HR specialists will always manage to take a rabbit out of their hat and tell you a reason why you are not suitable for a position. To name just a few: lack of experience, not the right qualifications, or an unsatisfactory interview.  As I was reflecting on this today, I came across, not surprisingly given the circumstances,  SteveJobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. It is quite moving, regardless of whether you're an Apple-maniac or not, so if you haven’t heard it, now is the perfect time to do so. To make the long story short, Jobs explains how everything in his life had happened for a reason.  Dropping out of college and being fired from the company that he established was his destiny, the route he had to follow. Without following exactly the same (career)path he wouldn’t have been the visionary Steve Jobs that we knew. 

This made me think and re-think my perspective. Maybe it’s not you, your application, personality or qualifications. What if it is simply destiny? So if you’ve also quit college, have been recently fired, are doing the third (un)paid internship in your life, a PhD, or a third MA or you’re simply not getting the dream job, it is (maybe) because this is your destiny, the route you have to follow. All these things are just dots. And even if now, from the perspective of an unemployed job-seeker, you fail to see how these dots could be related to each other, how these unfortunate career steps could actually be part of your way up, a sort of destiny master-plan for you, one day you will. Because:

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your guts, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

So next time when you hear that you’re not the person they’ve been looking for, remember that maybe it's exactly the opposite - this is not the company YOU're looking for. A failed job opportunity is just a dot, a dot, which will soon make sense. A blessing in disguise...