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Comment by rramadass | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't do this and keep it around. We have all had rejections, particularly in these highly competitive times but the trick is to forget about them after doing a quick postmortem and learning any lessons. The reason is that psychologically we are wired to focus on the negatives and ruminate endlessly on it leading to self-doubt and a sapping of self-confidence. This is absolutely not good for long-term psychological growth and by extension, your life.

There is also the fact that "recruiting" methods are pseudo-scientific and do not reflect the candidate's ability (outside of very narrow specialized fields) at all. People also tend to make biased snap judgements if you display your failures/faults rather openly. Always project your strengths and don't advertise your faults.

PS: Read The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence by Baltasar Gracian trans. by Jeremy Robbins (aka The Art of Worldly Wisdom) for some pragmatic approach to life.

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Am I supposed to forget that the vast majority of companies find me unhireable?

In a sense, yes. The trick is to analyze the event (i.e. the attempt and the failure) to learn lessons for improvement and not allow it to be a reflection and definition of you. Are you applying for the wrong type of jobs, are you preparing for the interview properly, how do you distinguish yourself from the crowd, are your expectations too high, are you willing to settle for lower pay, are you networking properly etc. etc. are all parameters which you can tune to give yourself an edge. You have to learn to "Hustle" (not meant in a pejorative way).

Tips to distinguish from the crowd?

Do a google search for "how to stand out from the crowd in the job market". Among the ones which came up https://www.job-hunt.org/ , https://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-navigation/job-search-na... seem more relevant.

You have to work on your ability, specialize in something and advertise it strongly. There is something i call "increasing the surface area of your luck". It is not enough to just know a language/framework/tool/etc. but you need to go "under the hood" which a "normal" engineer would not bother about eg. knowing how to write multithreaded code but not knowing how SMPs/Caches/Memory Barriers etc. work is not good. You also need to phrase your CV in such a manner (i.e. not a simple list of what you know/done) that you grab the reader's attention eg. instead of saying "i am a experienced C++ programmer" say something like "C++ multi-paradigm programmer with the ability to span all levels of abstraction". Finally, you will be surprised what wonders engaging persistently with Recruiters/Companies/Clients can get you i.e. don't take an initial "no" for a final answer.

How do you do that though when you mostly get no other feedback than a generic “we’re sorry but we focused on a more suitable candidate instead of you”? What makes a candidate more suitable? What am I missing? What should I work on to be a more suitable candidate to your company? You never get these answers so you keep guessing and shooting in the dark... coming nowhere closer.

If 99% of the people in the world despise you, that leaves over 70 million that don't.

You should see it like this: There's way more candidates than there are positions. Look at Linkedin, even some unknown startup gets 50+ applicants (and that's only Linkedin, they probably have other channels for hiring). Now the famous names you are competing against hundreds. So yeah, don't sweat it. You and me are both unhirable for many positions as are most everyone else.

> People also tend to make biased snap judgements if you display your failures/faults rather openly. Always project your strengths and don't advertise your faults.

I believe one of the ideas behind this list is to help overcome the culture where you are supposed to hide your failures. Not a bad thing for a self-confident person, as the author probably is.

Of course for someone who feels so much depressed by their failures that they can't stop thinking about them over and over doing that might not be the best therapy.

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