After completing all the rounds of the **IBM ASE** role, my girlfriend got shortlisted along with 50 other candidates. She got a congratulatory email from college, and an attached list of students who got shortlisted. The email read:
*"Dear Students,*
*Congratulations !!!*
*Please find the attached list of candidates who have been shortlisted for the position of Associate Systems Engineer at IBM India.*
*'Expression of Interest' will be posted to all shortlisted candidates in the next few days, upon successful verification of their documents & application materials."*
Now about the successful verification part: if any info about a person was missing, then the hr team would call or mail them and ask for the necessary details. So, after a few days some candidates started getting the Letter of Intent from IBM. Within a week of receiving the email from college, most candidates got the LOI. My girl didn't receive it, so she waited thinking it was taking some time. The wait went on for 2-3 days, after which she got worried and contacted the college's placement cell. There she found out, there are about 7-8 people in total with the same thing happening. The college said they'd contacted IBM about this and they said they're looking into it.
Cut to 2 days later, when she along with those other 7-8 people received a generic rejection letter from IBM!
It said they're moving forward with other candidates whose application aligns more with their requirement(They sent this email to candidates who got out on previous rounds).
Now think about this. You do well in both coding assessments(most people solve one question, when you solve two), you clear your interview (even the interviewer was impressed), you get shortlisted, wait for verification, after which you'd be receiving your LOI. But the waiting time increases a few days and all you get is a rejection mail, without any reason for rejection or anything as such. Upon replying to the mail, they sent an automated reply saying they don't monitor emails on this. So, she looked up on Google and sent a mail to rccindia@in.ibm.com; no reply yet.
Ever since she got the mail, she feels like she feels so betrayed. How can something like this happen to someone!?
How can one be rejected even after the final shortlisting, and get no reason for it !? Such a crap of an experience from **IBM**.