I got rejected from every single interview. Not just once or twice — I couldn't even get past the initial round to a follow-up or final interview. The feedback was almost always the same: my English was choppy, not well structured, barely conversational. I was so used to speaking Tagalog that switching to English left me stiff, stuttering, and painfully awkward in front of every interviewer.
Every rejection stung more than it probably should have, because of the math I understood clearly at the time: with no experience and no degree yet, every interview invitation felt like maybe a 10% shot at actually landing a client or job. Getting invited at all already felt like winning a small lottery. Getting rejected after that felt like losing it all over again.
The Line I Kept Repeating to Myself
I let myself feel the disappointment. I didn't pretend the rejections didn't hurt. But I never let that be enough of a reason to stop. I kept telling myself one thing, over and over: "Just one client that's willing to trust me — this is going to work."
That single sentence became the thing that got me to apply again after the fifth rejection, the tenth, the twentieth. I didn't need every interview to go well. I needed exactly one person willing to take a chance on me despite the rough English and the thin resume.
Diagnosing the Real Problem
Eventually, I stopped just absorbing the rejections and started actually evaluating why I kept freezing up. What I found wasn't really a language problem at its core — it was an overthinking problem. I was so afraid of being judged by whoever I was talking to that the fear itself buried whatever I was actually supposed to be saying. The nervousness wasn't about not knowing the material. It was about bracing for judgment before I'd even opened my mouth.
Once I saw that clearly, I understood something important: if interviews were the only place I practiced speaking English and handling that exposure, I'd be stuck in an incredibly slow, expensive feedback loop — every rep costing me an actual opportunity I couldn't afford to waste.
Applying Anyway, In Multiple Directions at Once
So I didn't just keep repeating the same approach and hoping for different results. I applied to local accounting firms for internships — rejected by almost all of them. I reached out to the small handful of business-owner connections I had, even offering to work for free just to gain real exposure — that fell through too, partly because of how differently "bookkeeper" gets understood in a lot of Philippine business circles.
I kept going anyway. Eventually, I turned toward online and virtual accounting firms specifically, sent another round of letters, and — unexpectedly — got invited to an interview. This time, I got in.
Why Persistence Beat Talent, At Least at First
I want to be honest: my English didn't dramatically improve overnight between all those rejections and that first accepted interview. What changed was that I kept showing up in front of new opportunities instead of retreating after the sting of rejection. Each rejection taught me something small — how I froze, what specific question tripped me up, which part of my explanation didn't land — and I carried those lessons into the next attempt instead of just accumulating disappointment.
Persistence didn't erase my weaknesses. It just gave me enough repetitions to slowly wear them down, one uncomfortable interview at a time.
What I'd Tell Someone Facing the Same Wall
If you're getting rejected over and over, and it feels like proof that you're not cut out for this, I want to offer a different read on it: rejection at this stage isn't a verdict on your future — it's data about your current gaps, and repetitions you haven't logged yet. You don't need every interviewer to say yes. You need to keep showing up until the one who will, does.
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Mahal na mahal kita. Mahal na mahal ka ng Diyos. Faith without action is Fiction.