The upside of rejection

This morning I was thinking about rejection.

On my way to the office I happened to pass by a former building owned by NYNEX.

Back in early 1991, just months before I would graduate from college, a number of my classmates were getting jobs at fancy big companies in Boston.

Others were going to wall street.

I wanted to do something in the computer industry. And I thought I would stay in Boston. My family was in NY and I liked Boston. It felt good.

So I sent my resume to a bunch of big companies.

One of them was NYNEX. It was a systems analyst job where I would develop and test in fortran. The pay was $35k/year. That was more money than I could imagine possibly needing.

I sent in my resume and they asked me to come in for an interview. My parents bought me a suit and I went in to meet the hiring manager.

Two weeks later I received my rejection letter in the mail. It was one of many.

I was crushed. What was I going to do after college? It seemed like everyone else was getting a job.

I was spending time on AOL in those days thanks to my Mac and a hayes 2400bps modem. And I found what I was looking for. ON Technology in Cambridge was a little startup at the time. They posted a job offer on AOL in the communities forum.

I went to their office and fell in love with the startup atmosphere. They had Macs on everyone’s desk. They were using CodeWarrior. They were building Mac apps (OnLocation & Meeting Maker). It was a brick and beam building and everyone was young and alive. They offered me a job for $20k/year and I happily accepted it.

Less than a year later, I went out to MacWorld San Francisco to help & learn. I fell in love with a girl and that city. I put everything I owned into my hatchback at the time, convinced my kid brother to drive across country with me. We made it to SF in 4 days.

I wonder what would have happened if NYNEX gave me that offer.

Sometimes rejection can be your best friend.

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Post Notes

  1. dhurlburt reblogged this from bijan
  2. pegobry reblogged this from bijan
  3. benwilkinson reblogged this from bijan
  4. benwilkinson reblogged this from bijan
  5. whycurious reblogged this from marco and added:
    Quoted for emphasis. The best jobs are always the ones you fall into, often with that person this friend knows.
  6. sl1m reblogged this from kayfabe
  7. bdotdub reblogged this from marco and added:
    Great post both by Marco and Bijan. It helps to keep this in mind whenever you encounter dissappointment :)
  8. quatermain reblogged this from marco and added:
    say it’s worked out well for me too. It’s...little-known fact that I started out
  9. idiopolis reblogged this from applebottom
  10. applebottom reblogged this from kayfabe
  11. kiyoshimartinez reblogged this from marco and added:
    I completely agree. Rejection isn’t always...bad thing! Being
  12. topherchris reblogged this from marco and added:
    It’s pretty rad when
  13. steampoweredmedia reblogged this from marco
  14. marco reblogged this from bijan and added:
    Bijan Sabet’s story...his first real job rejection:...job...
  15. charlestheirishman reblogged this from insertname
  16. kayfabe reblogged this from bijan
  17. aaronindenver reblogged this from bijan
  18. fredericguarino reblogged this from bijan and added:
    Excellent post Bijan, echoes...current reflections !
  19. insertname reblogged this from bijan and added:
    bijan sabet: The upside...rejection Indeed!...recently (well...
  20. bijan posted this