If you applied for a promotion and got turned down, you’re probably feeling pretty rejected. Being passed over for a job never feels great, but it can be a particularly bitter pill when you’re turned down by people who you see every day and who know your work well. But a “no” or a “not this time” doesn’t need to be the end of your aspirations. Here are five things you can do in the aftermath of the rejection that can position you much more strongly for the next opportunity.
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Don’t take it personally. In most cases, being passed over for promotion isn’t a repudiation of your skills or your personality. Most of the time, another candidate was simply more qualified. It’s important not to take the decision personally or become bitter or resentful, because that will make you miserable at work and harm your professional reputation — whereas you can actually help build your reputation by demonstrating that you can handle bad news with grace.
Meet with the hiring manager and ask for feedback. One of the advantages of being an internal candidate is that it’s usually much easier to get feedback about your candidacy and what you could do to be a stronger candidate in the future. Of course, in asking for feedback, be sure that it’s clear that you’re not looking to challenge the decision; if you come across as even a little bit adversarial, you’re much less likely to get candid feedback. Instead, explain that you understand that someone else was a stronger candidate this time but that you’d be grateful for any advice on how you can better position yourself as a candidate in the future. You can get incredibly useful insights by doing this — everything from learning that you need to improve how you come across in interviews to learning that you need to shore up your skills in a particular area.
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Ask to meet with your own manager to discuss your professional goals. In most companies, your manager will be aware that you had applied for another position, so this is a natural opening to ask to meet to discuss your professional development and future goals. Ahead of this meeting, think about whether there are specific things your manager could do to help you better position yourself for promotion in the future. For example, you might ask about opportunities to take on additional responsibilities or to raise your visibility in the company (such as by representing your team at particular meetings or getting a byline on pieces you’re writing internally). Or, even if you can’t think of specific ways your manager might help, try simply asking for advice on what you can do to increase your chances of advancing in the future.
If you have good rapport with your manager, you might also ask for a candid assessment of the likelihood of your moving up in the company in the future. There are some positions that don’t have a natural path to advancement, and if you’re in one of those, it will be useful to know that. Or, you might even hear that promotion is unlikely unless you build stronger relationships with colleagues, or remedy your reputation for being difficult to work with or begin taking more initiative on certain types of projects. If there’s an issue like that holding you back, you’re far better off learning about it even if it’s awkward to hear — but many managers won’t volunteer it unless you directly ask about your prospects.
Once you’ve done all this, take stock of your situation. What have you learned from these conversations? Do you have a good understanding of why you didn’t get the job, what you would need to do to earn a promotion in the future and what your prospects for doing that are? Does your manager value you and seem interested in retaining you? Is there a path toward your professional goals at your current company, or are you getting the sense that you might need to leave in order to advance?
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Decide on a plan to eventually earn the promotion you want. Using the feedback that you received from these conversations, put together a plan of attack to earn the promotion next time. That might mean that you map out a plan for building a particular skill or increasing your visibility within the organization. Or if you’ve realized that promotion is unlikely at your current company, it might mean that you decide to start boosting your networking activity to lay the groundwork for a job search in a year, or even that you start looking around now. In other words, take the energy that you put into going after that promotion in the first place and re-invest it in a longer-term road map to a similar result.
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What to Do When You’re Turned Down for a Promotion originally appeared on usnews.com
