Rejection Sixteen- Assistant Graphic Designer

Today’s rejection therapy experiment: I applied for an Assistant Graphic Designer role at dsm-firmenich.

Design is strange like that.
You spend hours refining pixels, adjusting spacing no one else will notice, choosing colors that feel right before they look right. Most of that work happens in silence, in layers, in tiny decisions that never make it into a resume.

Submitting an application feels like flattening all of that into a PDF.

Part of me wanted to overthink it.
My portfolio isn’t perfect.
My experience isn’t linear.
Real designers probably started earlier, knew more, had clearer paths.

But design has never been linear for me. It’s been stitched together from book covers, photography, experiments, abandoned ideas, and the slow realization that this isn’t just something I do, it’s how I think.

So I applied.

Maybe they’ll say no.
Maybe they won’t say anything.
Maybe my work will be opened for ten seconds and forgotten.

Still, I sent it.

Because hiding is its own kind of rejection.
Because waiting to feel “ready” is just another form of delay.
Because somewhere between doubt and curiosity, I’m starting to believe my work deserves to be seen.

Today’s fear looked like a corporate design team and a global brand.
Today’s response was a quiet click on “submit.”

I treated my creative work like it belongs in the real world, not just in my hard drive.