How the NCAA bracket challenge correlates with your job search

I am in an NCAA bracket competition with some of the greatest minds in sports.

Long story short, my first job out of college was with a guy who loved the tournament & started a bracket pool (before it became super mainstream). Fast forward, he now works in analytics for a major professional sports team & the group is full of other professional sports data guys.

I’ve remained in this group after all of these years for one sheer reason….curiosity.

Every year, I pick my teams based on superficial reasons. And every year, I beat out half of the guys who study player & team analytics for a living. The one thing in sports that you have to remember is that sometimes it boils down to pure luck & passion.

Speaking of luck & passion— I’ve worked with many job seekers who were perfectly qualified for a job…. that they didn’t get. Rejection happens all of the time. It’s the one thing every job seeker has in common. Dealing with rejection doesn’t have to tank your morale or derail your job search. The fact is, you’re NOT going to land every job you apply for.

When you are rejected from a job, analyze the situation.

✅Were you as prepared as you could have been?

✅Did you meet all of the qualifications of the job?

✅Did the job go to an internal hire

Author

  • Sarah Johnston

    I’m a former corporate recruiter and industry “insider” who got tired of seeing talented high-achievers get passed over for opportunities because they did not have the right marketing documents or know how to position themselves in interviews. I have relocated multiple times across the country as a “trailing spouse” and have had to execute job searches in completely cold markets (where I literally knew no one!) I have been named a LinkedIn Top Voice in the career space in 2019, HR Weekly’s Top 100 Most Influential People in HR, named the owner of the “best resume writing firm for experienced executives” by Balance Careers and a “top follow” by JobScan in 2019 and 2020.

Sarah Johnston

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