Promises, Promises

The Art (or lack, thereof) of the Rejection Note / 44 Minutes

As a seasoned job seeker I thought I had seen just about everything when it came to job search. But, recently I encountered a "first", and it had to do with the rejection of an application I had submitted earlier this month. That led me to think about some of the letters I've received during the process of job search. There have been some "vanilla" ones, and believe it or not some good ones too.

Rejection Letters 101

A few months ago, I shared statistics when I was at the 6-month mark of job search. While I plan on providing an update on that if/when I get to the 12-month mark, today I want to zero in on the one aspect of the search that all of us dread, but we know it's part of the process. That is the dreaded rejection letter.

Why would I (or anyone, for that matter) want to dwell on the rejection letter?

Dwell probably isn't the right term, but I think it's worthy of a fun discussion. It's one of the few ways that a company can communicate with applicants, so you would think that they would make every effort to insure that this piece of communication was clear, to-the-point, yet sensitive in knowing that if you applied for one position, but were not a fit, maybe you would try again for another position for which you may be a better fit.

Lasting Impressions of our one-to-one contact with the hiring company

The rejection note is what may leave that lasting impression. While many of us chalk it up as one more opportunity that got away, some of us may become dejected - especially if we felt the job description was written specifically for us. I would like to believe that someone (or something) processed it with either real or artificial intelligence to give it a proper evaluation.

The bigger picture of a company trying to attract talent is that there are only a few, what I will call “touch points” with candidates that are available to a company. Here are two obvious ones directly related to candidate recruitment:

Company website

The company website is, without a doubt, the first-place people travel to if they want to learn more about a company. How easy it is to navigate, to find the Careers page, to search for a position, to apply for a job. We’re talking right now about the prospective job seeker. Even to the extent of how easy it is to apply for a role in this company is going to leave an impression. Was the website easy to navigate? Could I insert my resume and not have to spend 25 minutes cleaning up the fields so that all my information goes in the right spot? Can I submit a cover letter? Are there qualifying questions that I will find out about after I’ve done all the work to submit my profile – that will rule me out immediately?

Job Fair

Jarred Lyons, MBT did a nice job in a couple recent posts describing what he saw at a recent Life Science Career Fair. I attended the same event, and while I am appreciative for what the organizer was trying to do, I couldn’t help but feel (possibly the same as Jarred) that the in-person model of today’s job fair feels dated and out of touch with the needs of both the hiring companies and the candidates. These candidates are giving up their time to stand in Disney-like lines so they can do exactly what they would do online – submit a resume and never hear from the company again! What a tremendous waste of time for most of the attendees. Some of the companies really got it right. They had three or four people manning the booth and they were able to talk with people and keep the lines to a manageable length. Other companies – some of the biggies, would try and speak with attendees, but the sheer volume of people meant meaningful conversations were kept to a minimum.

"Gold Standard Template"? Yuck!

After reviewing a number of email rejections this particular one seems to curry favor among the Talent Acquisition community:

Dear David:

Thank you for expressing interest in the?(product name), Senior Product Manager career opportunity available with (company). Having reviewed your application, we regret to inform you that we have chosen to pursue other candidates whose skills, experience, and education more closely align with the requirements of the role.?

We will keep your resume in our candidate database and will reach out in the future if a position becomes available that more closely matches your qualifications.

We encourage you to remain informed about employment opportunities at (company) by visiting our career website at?(company URL) and applying to those positions for which you feel you may be qualified.

Again, we appreciate your interest in (company). We wish you all the best in your career search.

Regards,

Agile methodology applied to applicant review - Velocity in rejection - 44 Minutes

It was this interaction that inspired today's article:

At 10:14am I received confirmation that the application I completed had been submitted. That's standard and par for the course. What caught my eye was that just a mere 44 minutes later I was receiving a rejection note. Take note of what I put in bold print below - I guess I know where I stand!

Oct 11, 2023, 10:14?AM?

Dear DAVID , Thank you for submitting your application to (company). We appreciate the time and effort you have taken to apply for the Senior Marketing Director, Strategy & Operations, Subscription Partnerships role. You put time and effort into your application, so we'll make sure we give it the attention it deserves. While we’re not able to reach out to every applicant, we will contact you if your skills and experience are a strong match for the role. You can review your profile and browse our other open vacancies at our Careers page. Once again, thank you for considering (company) as your potential employer. We appreciate your interest and look forward to getting to know you better. Best Regards, The Talent Acquisition Team

This is an automated email response. Please do not reply.

Oct 11, 2023, 10:58?AM (44 minutes later)

Hi DAVID , Thank you for applying for the position of Senior Marketing Director, Strategy & Operations, Subscription Partnerships . We appreciate the time and effort you have taken in completing your application. We have carefully considered the merits of your application, and at this time, we unfortunately will not be moving forward with your candidacy. Please feel free to continue to check the other vacancies on our Careers page. We can keep your application in our database which allows us to consider you for future vacancies that may match your skills and experience. However, if you prefer not to keep your information on file or do not want this to occur, please refer to our Applicant Privacy Notice on our careers page to find the appropriate point of contact. We appreciate your interest in our company and wish you success in your career search. Thanks, The Talent Acquisition Team

This is an automated email response. Please do not reply.

Note the bold print in the paragraph above. Yeah, right!

When is a rejection note not really a rejection note? When the job disappears!

Oops, I guess we weren't ready

Hi David, Thank you for applying to the JOBNAME, with (company)! We are honored that you want to contribute to our mission.?We want to inform you that we re-evaluated the need for this role and have decided to close the JOBNAME position. We would like to encourage you to stay in touch regarding future opportunities, and invite you to keep an eye on our Careers Page and apply to any positions that fit your interest and qualifications. We wish you success in your job search and in your future endeavors. Thank you again for your time and interest in (company)! Sincerely, (company) Talent Team

All is not lost! Words of Encouragement

There are some talent acquisition team members that are bold enough to put their names on the bottom of rejection emails, and I applaud them. I have gone as far as to write to them and compliment them for stepping up and making this a human process. No matter what the outcome these individuals have stood head and shoulders above the nameless, faceless (fill in the company name) Talent Teams that are out there. Here is one note in particular that I was so smitten with that I wrote to the author and ended up connecting with her on LinkedIn. This first one is the acknowledgement of the receipt of my application.

David,

Thank you for your interest in (company). ?We know how many opportunities there are out there and are so glad you are interested in ours. As a next step, we'll take a look at your application. ?If it looks like there is a?strong match we'll be in touch to schedule some discussions.? We will get back to you either way - we don't believe in the "recruiting black hole!"??

In the meantime, check out our website to learn more about us and what we do.?? Finally, we'd love it if you follow us on social media (links below). ?We post the latest company and employee news, as well as a ton of fun pictures.? We want you to get a feel for what it's like "behind the job description..."

• Glassdoor
• LinkedIn and LinkedIn Live
• Instagram
• Facebook??

Thanks again and #WatchUs (company name)!

Is it possible to have a favorite rejection letter?

The position above didn't result in an interview, and I received the following rejection letter - BUT, I actually felt good after reading it.

David,

Thank you for your interest in?(company) and the Vice President, Program Management position. ?I know how many opportunities are out there, so I really appreciate you taking the time to apply to ours.?? Your?skills and background are?impressive, but we?did receive?some other applicants that more closely match our needs. ?I know; I've been on the receiving end of this message before – it’s not the message you were hoping to hear.

But, this isn't the end.? I know a lot of companies say that they'll keep your resume on file for future openings -- we really do. ?We have several people that have been hired for openings even though the first job wasn't the right one.? I'd love to stay in touch. ?If we haven't already, let's you and I connect on LinkedIn.? I'd also like to invite you to follow us on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Instagram and Facebook. Any or all of them would be great - it's a great way to stay in touch with (company), and for us to keep you front and center with our communications.?? Once again, thank you?so much.

Sincerely, (TA staffer)

Over the five years that it's been since I received this message it has far and away been the best example of a rejection letter that I could receive.

I Get It Now

It's not the rejection of not having an opportunity to join the company that stings (well, maybe that's part of it). It comes down to the words that the company uses to dismiss us and herd us like sheep.

Kudos to those of you in Talent Acquisition that make the effort to make it a human experience, and shame on those that hide behind the blah, blah, blah of form letter rejections.

Have a great weekend and a Spooky Halloween!

Dave

About David Shultis

I am a senior level B2B marketing and product management professional with experience in the life science/med device/manufacturing space. A return to a leadership role (formal or informal) where coaching and mentoring a team or working with a cross-functional team would also be an important component of the position. This could be in the form of a director of commercial excellence, marketing director, a group product director or as an individual contributor in a senior product management capacity. I'm especially interested in under-performing departments, startups or rebuilds where I can contribute by making a positive change through leadership and the implementation of procedures and metrics.

When not in pursuit of my next opportunity you can find me biking in and around New Jersey (7,000+ miles so far in 2023) or trying to get my walking in with a 15k step goal each day.

Photo(s) of the week. I took a ride this past Sunday just to try and see some of the Fall colors. It's not as nice as some of the images I've seen from my son's hikes in the mountains, but not bad for Farmingdale, NJ.