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MidReal Story
Resilient Pursuit: A Tale of Triumph
Anonymous
Apr 23
Scenario:A young hopeless Turkish woman was searching for a job desparately but she was rejected all the time. However she didn't gave up and finally found a good job.
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My name is Elif Yılmaz.
I’m 24, and I live in Istanbul, Turkey.
I graduated from Boğaziçi University last year, with a degree in public relations and a minor in journalism.
I might be young, and I might not have much experience, but I know I’m good at what I do.
I know that if I find the right job, I’d make an excellent employee.
Which is why I’ve spent the last few weeks doing nothing but apply for jobs.
I searched every site, checked every paper, and visited every career fair there was.
I put my trust in myself and my education.
I put my trust in my degree and my qualifications.
But most of all, I put my trust in my work ethic.
I believed that if I worked hard enough, and looked long enough, something would come up.
Istanbul is a big city.
It’s full of job opportunities.
But it’s also full of people looking for those opportunities.
And that’s what makes this so hard.
I woke up early today.
I put on a nice blouse, and a pair of black slacks, straightened my hair, and brushed some mascara on.
I wanted to look presentable.
I wanted to look good, and be taken seriously by the people I’d meet today.
And then I went out, just like I’ve done every day for the past month.
I took the metro to Taksim Square, and got off at the Şişhane station.
It was about 9:00 AM when I did this, but the day was already hot and dry.
The sun was bright in the sky, and there was not a single cloud to be seen anywhere.
The streets were crowded with people, all rushing to work, or somewhere else they needed to be.
They were all in a hurry to get where they were going, and so was I.
I was in a hurry to get to my first interview for the day.
That’s something I’ve been doing for the past few weeks: setting up as many interviews as I could at different companies, all over the city.
None of them have gone well so far, and none of them have resulted in a job offer either.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying.
I may not have the money to stay in the dormitory anymore, and my father might not have the money to send me any more allowance, but I do have my pride.
Applying for jobs is not easy, and it’s not supposed to be easy either.
If it was easy, everyone would do it and then where would we be?
That’s why I’m not about to give up now either.
Because I know that if I do give up, I’ll have no one to blame for my situation but myself.
That’s why I decided to keep trying, no matter how hard it gets, or how long it takes.
So far, I’ve applied to over 200 jobs in Istanbul alone.
And out of those 200 applications, only about 10 have responded with an offer for an interview.
I went on every single one of them, and I was rejected by every single one of them too.
I got rejection letters from companies with names that are bigger and more prestigious than the entire country of Turkey combined.
Those letters are starting to pile up in my inbox now, and they’re starting to affect me as well.
Every time someone sends me a rejection letter, it feels like they’re taking a little piece of me with them as well.
It feels like they’re saying I’m not good enough for them.
And the more those rejections pile up, the more I start to believe it myself too.
It makes me feel like I’m going to lose my confidence soon.
In fact, I’m not sure how much of it is still left.
I was rejected by every company I visited today as well.
I was told I was too young to be taken seriously at one of them.
I was told I didn’t have enough experience at another.
I was told all sorts of things by everyone else too.
But the truth is that none of it matters.
Because I know that if I keep trying long enough, and if I keep trying hard enough, I’ll eventually get there.
I know that if I keep looking for the right job long enough, I’ll eventually find it too.
That’s why I decided to keep trying again this morning.
So after the last interview was over with today, I got on the metro again and went back home.
I said goodbye to Taksim Square as we drove away from it, and watched the city pass me by.
It was only 2:00 PM when I got back.
As soon as I was back in my room, my phone beeped with a message from Ayşe: “How did it go today?”
Ayşe is my best friend.
We met on the first day of university and we’ve been together ever since.
She’s always been there for me when I needed her, and she’s always listened to me when no one else would.
She’s always been there to support me when no one else could either.
So I told her how everything went today as well.
And just like all the other times before this one, she replied with the same thing too: “Don’t worry about it!Something will come up eventually!”
Ayşe is an optimist at heart.
She always sees the glass as half-full rather than half-empty.
And she always believes in positive thinking too.
I think that’s mostly because she has blonde hair and blue eyes though.
And just between you and me: I think she might be a little bit naïve as well.
But I love her all the same.
I decided to listen to her advice today as well, even though it sounded quite familiar by now.
I started looking for a job again as soon as we finished talking.
I decided to look for a job in a different area altogether this time though, just like I did last time as well: Public Relations!
I searched for a job in public relations, just like I had before as well.
I searched for an entry-level position in particular this time though, rather than an internship like I had before.
Because if I can just get my foot in the door somewhere, then maybe I can work my way up from there!
I can work my way up to where I want to be eventually!
I can work my way up to my dream job eventually!
As long as it’s a place where they work in public relations, then it’s good enough for me!
That’s what I thought anyway, so that’s what I did too.
I didn’t come across anything that caught my eye immediately though, so I didn’t apply for any jobs right away either.
I guess that wasn’t such a bad thing either, because it gave me a chance to think about everything instead: What exactly do I want?What exactly am I looking for?
What exactly am I willing to do?
The more time that passed since that day, the further away from me it felt like my dream job was going to be though.
Because the months went by one after another just like before, but they never brought me any closer to getting the job that I wanted either.
In fact, they only seemed to take me further away from it instead.
Just like they only seemed to take me further away from everything else too.
Because the money in my savings account kept disappearing day by day too.
The money I had left after paying the rent wasn’t going to last me much longer either.
The money that was left after paying for food and transportation wasn’t going to last me much longer either.
And even the money that was left after paying for all the other expenses wasn’t going to last me much longer either.
Because my parents have been having some financial problems lately too, so they haven’t been able to send me any money for a while now either.
They don’t have any money left to send me anymore anyway now, and they don’t have any money left to pay for the apartment’s rent anymore either.
I know that because they told me themselves.
So if everything goes well, then maybe they’ll be able to send me a little bit of money for food and transportation soon.
But if things don’t go so well, then maybe they won’t have anything to send me at all.
And maybe they won’t have anything to eat themselves either.
That’s why I decided to look for a job in a different area altogether this morning.
That’s why I decided to look for a job in public relations this time too.
And that’s also why I decided to keep looking for a job no matter what too.
But even though I’ve been looking for a job every single day for the past few months, and even though I’ve been applying for jobs every single day too, no one has called me in for an interview so far.
No one has called me in for an interview, and no one has sent me an email either.
