Comments on: What To Do When You Don’t Get The Job

By: Feeling Guilty About Taking Time Off | Feed-Syndicate

Feeling Guilty About Taking Time Off | Feed-Syndicate — Fri, 14 May 2010 08:32:53 +0000

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By: Search Freelance Projects » Blog Archive » Feeling Guilty About Taking Time Off

Fri, 07 May 2010 04:19:48 +0000

[...] What To Do When You Don’t Get The Job [...]

By: Freelance Programmer

Freelance Programmer — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:40:31 +0000

I am still getting used to not getting a call back. I see this a lot in programming and website development. A lot of employers I work with just don’t know what they want, and sometimes don’t realize how much quality development costs.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:49:26 +0000

Not even getting a response is something I have had to get used to–but then again I’m learning to be pretty aggressive.

By: 4 Things to do when you have no clients! « Powerusers

4 Things to do when you have no clients! « Powerusers — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:48:25 +0000

[...] What to do when You Don’t Get the Job? [...]

By: Simon Stapleton

Simon Stapleton — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:25:42 +0000

Hey Laura – you’ve hit the nail right on the head here.
I find that the pain for freelancers is two-fold when denied a gig. One is the immediate loss of an opportunity and the income it would have provided. Enough reason to get upset. The longer term effect, which is much more devastating, is the loss of confidence that this creates. Denial after denial can really rock it.
A lack of confidence can then create some detrimental behaviors, like going in at a price that’s too low to sustain business, or bid for projects that are either not suitable, or too simple meaning that personal growth is stifled.
When I was talking to a bunch of freelancers in a recent teleseminar, most of them told me at some point that they had felt desperate and taken on projects that meant they were locked in and missed out on other opportunities. They regret not continuing pursuing the best opportunities.
It takes bravery to continue in a kind of blind-faith… but I don’t think it’s blind, it’s just the nature of the business.

By: On the Money

On the Money — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:32:39 +0000

Sounds like you were perhaps milked for ideas and then the job in reality put out to either the lowest bidder or one of their existing favourites … Frustrating if that is the case. However, you are spot on about staying positive. I had a vaguely similar circumstance and the contractor later took me on to do a job … so … !

By: Jared Walker

Jared Walker — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:52:23 +0000

A lot of my lost jobs have been because of price. The client was looking for a really cheap price and my estimate came up too high. I’ve read from other articles that a good way to avoid this problem is to offer different tiers of pricing. Offer a low estimate for certain services and a higher estimate for additional services. This way you don’t scare away some of the price-sensitive clients, and the ones that you do lose might not be worth your time anyway (so you shouldn’t feel bad about it).

By: Catherine Cantieri, Sorted

Catherine Cantieri, Sorted — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:26:37 +0000

I have no insight to offer, just lots of appreciation for all the great comments!

By: Lisa Dale

Lisa Dale — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:08:20 +0000

I’m new to this blog (because I’m interested in learning a bit about the world of freelance), and I thought I’d pipe in because I had a little giggle over here.

I’m in the book biz–a new novelist with Grand Central–and getting turned down is so much a part of creative writing that it’s odd not to be turned down.

The key, for me, was changing my mind about getting rejections and other writing-related disappointments. Once I stopped getting so gloomy about them and started to think of them as steps in the right direction, it really turned my whole outlook around. I feel better sometimes by simply telling myself, “Well, Lisa, that was one heck of a good try.” It’s like a consolation congratulations. And it works for me. : )

Anyway, great post, Laura. I shall continue to lurk and learn.