How to deal with the awkwardness of volunteering after a job rejection
Hiring managers often handle rejection unprofessionally and avoid you while still expecting you to volunteer for free, leaving you feeling uncomfortable and unsure of how to interact in person. This makes it difficult to continue supporting an organization you love without feeling awkward or wondering if you're coming across as pushy.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Stepping away from volunteering to focus on a career or new job
- 2Prevening awkwardness by pretending to be too busy to notice the avoidance
- 3Telling them you accepted a position elsewhere and will no longer be available to volunteer
- 4Avoiding the firms at career fairs
- 5Visiting the firms anyway despite feeling anxious about being pushy
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I've passed the hiring managers a few times in-person as I've been volunteering still and often have to go over to the department I interviewed for.”source ↗
“It just seems like they handled the communication incredibly unprofessionally and still expect me to work for free while also avoiding me themselves.”source ↗
“I just feel uncomfortable everytime I go there now despite really supporting and loving the goals/work the organization does.”source ↗
“Would it be weird to keep visiting the same firm at upcoming career fairs (especially if I already had talked with the recruiters outside school and wasn’t selected)? Would that come across as pushy?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 30Why do employers ghost you after a job interview?
- 9Why am I getting rejected from accounting internships with a high GPA?
- 8Why am I getting rejected for jobs for being overqualified?
- 8Why do recruiters ghost and waste time during a job search?
- 7How to stop getting irrelevant job offers from recruiters
- 3Why am I getting ghosted after great career fair chats?