Getting over the blues that accompany constant rejection can be one of the biggest hurdles for job seekers. It certainly was for Konstantinos Kasekas, who finished grad school only to find out that the jobs in his chosen field — strategic management — had dried up almost overnight.

“I’d probably get one response for every hundred resumés that I sent out,” he says. For six months, he sent out between 20 and 30 resumés a day, to every job posting he could find.

“There was definitely a sense of desolation,” he says. Eventually, he realized he had to change something. He began volunteering and, before long, he made connections that led to a sales position with a job-posting company.

It wasn’t the managerial position at a bank or insurance firm that he’d hoped for, but it led eventually to his career as a recruiter for Hudson Recruitment, one of the world’s largest recruitment firms. It’s not what he went to grad school for, but, he says, “Am I happy? Absolutely.”

Paul Copcutt, founder of Square Peg Solution, a career-coaching firm based in Dundas, Ont., advises job seekers not to take rejection too personally.

He says one way to help yourself feel better is to make what he calls a “success file,” a presentation binder filled with letters of congratulations, recommendations, photos, or newspaper clippings that provide examples of your achievements.

Zel Spillman, a career counsellor at the University of Toronto, says it’s important to stay upbeat because employers often interpret depression as a lack of enthusiasm for the job.

Instead, he says, job seekers should try to get excited about rejections. “The more no’s you get, the closer you’re going to get to that yes,” he says.

He adds, however, that after a certain point, constant rejection can signal a problem with your approach.

It’s a numbers game, he says, but sending out as many resumés as you can is not necessarily the best way to play it.

“The temptation is to do a sort of shotgun approach and try and apply to everything that you think you fit, but what you’re doing is diluting your effectiveness, stretching your resources, and increasing the number of times that somebody’s going to say no to you,” he says.

A better approach, he says, is to spend more time on fewer applications, targeting the specific companies and positions you’re interested in.

If you get an interview, prepare beforehand and follow up afterwards, Copcutt advises. He recommends sitting down after every interview and taking notes on what went well and what didn’t. Then, if you’re rejected, you’ll have a better idea about what to change next time.

Also, he says, “The thank-you note goes such a long way. Thank you after an interview, but also thank you after a rejection, because it’s unusual. People wouldn’t normally do that, and that really sticks out in an interviewer’s mind.”