Hey Reader,

Stoke have interviewed me twice.

I didn't get either job.

Twice I went through the whole thing. Twice I got the no.

Here's the part I didn't expect.

The head of football operations there still messages me.

Not about a job for me. About other people.

We've got someone here, can you help them.

There might be an opportunity coming up.

I've never worked a day for that club.

And they're still one of the more useful relationships I have in the game.

That took me a long time to understand, so I'll say it plainly.

The rejection isn't the end of the process.

It's often the start of the relationship.

Think about what actually happens in an interview.

You sit in a room with people who work in football. For an hour, sometimes longer, they get to know how you think.

That doesn't get deleted when they pick someone else.

You are now a person they've met. Someone whose thinking they've seen up close.

There was only ever one job. There were never only two outcomes.

One of our Recruitment Room members had the same thing happen.

Freddie almost didn't apply to Sheffield United. He didn't feel ready.

One of our mentors told him to go for it anyway.

He reached the final interview.

He didn't get it.

Then Sheffield United started sending him job adverts.

Because of the impression he left in the process.

He's a recruitment analyst at Cambridge United now. Under a year ago he'd never worked a day in football.

He'll tell you the Sheffield near-miss was one of the most useful things that happened to him.

Not because it worked out. It didn't.

But it was proof he was closer than he thought.

And it was live practice, under real pressure, at no cost.

Now before you say "but I'm not even getting interviews yet" - that's the same problem wearing a different coat.

Almost nobody feels ready when they apply.

Freddie doesn't meet every requirement for the job he holds right now.

The advice I give everyone is to apply at six or seven out of ten. Not ten out of ten.

Ten out of ten never comes.

I should be honest about the rest of it too.

Football hiring is slow. Clubs communicate badly. Getting ghosted after a final stage is normal, and it has happened to me.

None of that is a reflection of you.

Stop treating an application as a lottery ticket you either win or lose.

Start treating it as a room you get to be in.

Prepare properly. Turn up as someone worth remembering. Be gracious when the no comes, because it will come plenty of times.

Then stay in touch.

Because football is a small industry, and it runs on sliding doors.

The people making decisions today are somewhere else in eighteen months.

The one who turned you down becomes the one who thinks of you.

An opportunity that leads nowhere now doesn't mean it leads nowhere ever.

Two clubs told me no.

One of them still opens doors for me.

Go and get told no by someone worth knowing.

Liam