Rejection Hurts But It Leads You Into The Right Direction

Yes rejection is painful but it's part of the process. More often than not your stories may not get chosen if you send them out for publication or you may not get that internship or job you applied for and that is OK. Rejection is a blessing in disguise and those "no's" are leading you to the place where you need to be.

In my last year of undergrad at San Jose State University, my professor recommended me and a few other students for a writing internship at NBC News Bay Area.

Please see the email below for your reference:

Hi Arooba,

My name is Dan Pyryt and I am the nightside Executive Producer at NBC Bay Area.

Your name was passed along to me by Diane Guerrazzi, because we have a program here at the station for SJSU journalism students.

We are hiring students and former students, to be the next generation of writers, producers and reporters.

We currently have two people in the program, and they’re about to leave us for full time jobs in television.

Every single person that has been in our program, is now working full-time in television stations in California.

We have a 100% success rate.

You’re probably wondering how it works:

What we do is give you a writing test.

We see how you do and decide whether or not you would be a good fit for the program.

If accepted, you come to writing class for six weeks, then you’re hired to write for our newscasts.

You’re paid the entire time.

If you’re interested, we’d love to hear from you.

Please send me a resume immediately. We’re looking to start this class on Wednesday.

Thanks, and hope to hear from you soon!

Dan Pyryt

Executive Producer

NBC Bay Area News

So I went ahead and sent my resume to Dan and then he asked me to come and take a writing test at NBC. I thought I knew how to write scripts for TV newscast because I practiced that skill in the Update News course which I took at San Jose State University.

But I guess I didn't know how to write a story for broadcast because I didn't get this internship. Although I followed up with Dan, I never recieved an email telling me that I did not get into their writing program. But now I know why I didn't get into their program. I didn't follow the instructions. When you are given a writing test for broadcast, whether radio or TV, you don't write the print story they provide you as a script, you shorten up that print story so that it's no more than 25-30 seconds in length. In other words, you write a condensed version of that story.

Anyway, when I realized that I did not get this internship, it took a heavy toll on me and I was in depression for the rest of my last year at SJSU. What made it worse was learning that nearly all students at SJSU in my class or the class after me got internships at NBC.

But I never lost hope. I began applying for entry-level jobs in late December and early January 2018. I went on Indeed and sent out my resume to as many places as I could. Some places never got back to me or others said "Thank you for applying to this position. As you can imagine, we recieved a large number of applications. I am sorry to inform you that we have decided to move forward with another candidate for this position." Yes, I got hundreds of emails like this but finally got a response from Jennifer Seelig, the news director at KCBS Radio in San Francisco.

Please see her email below for your reference:

Ms. Kazmi:

I have received your application in response to online job postings for KCBS Radio.

Might you be available for a brief telephone interview to discuss further? 

Thank you,

Jennifer Seelig

Director of News and Programming

KCBS All News Radio

106.9 FM and 740 AM

When I saw this email, my eyes lit up and I wasted no time in informing Jennifer that I was interested in "discussing further." We spoke over the phone and Jennifer invited me to KCBS for an in-person interview. By the end of March 2018, I was officially hired as a Production Assistant at KCBS Radio.

Working at KCBS Radio was the best decision I made because my co-workers became my family in just a few months. I learned the ins and outs of audio editing, conducting interviews for live and tape sessions, writing for the website and above all I made life-long friendships.

I worked at KCBS until I got accepted into the masters program at Columbia University. I will never forget my last day at KCBS because it's very special to me. The entire news staff brought me a cake that read "Congratulations Arooba." I was given a card that was signed front and back and all around by the news staff and my news director gave a beautiful speech about my contributions to the newsroom.

The amount of love and respect I earned at KCBS is infinite and invaluable. I always strived to keep in touch with my co-workers because they always appreciated my work and they continued to support and motivate me. Essentially, they believed me when I stopped believing in myself.