I see a lot of discussion about how to beat the game when it comes to finding the perfect tech job. And while there certainly are things you can do to increase your chances, even if you do everything perfectly, you’re going to experience some rejections.

In 2019, Amazon reported receiving as many as 18 applications per minute, for a total of 208,000 applications for 30,000 open positions. This implies at least an 85% rejection rate, assuming every open position is filled from that candidate pool.

Further, there’s strong evidence that the traditional recruiting process is actually pretty bad at choosing good candidates. According to Geoff Smart, author of Who: The A Method for Hiring, “the typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50 percent.” This means that half of the people hired should have been, and by extension, half of the people who should have been hired, weren’t.

So take heart: Your rejection is not personal. It’s a numbers game. Stick in there. You’ll eventually land a job.