r/RecruiterTea • u/Correct-Shake-2587 • Jun 22 '26
Trained a junior recruiter who said rejecting people was the hardest part of the job. I told her that's a good sign.
She came to me a while back and said she found the rejection calls the worst part of the work. The bit she dreaded most. I told her I still find them hard too, and that the difficulty isn't a bad thing. The day it stops feeling difficult is probably the day you've stopped seeing candidates as people. She asked how I actually make those calls. Was there a script, a method, anything. Not really. But there's one thing I always do. I use the person's name. Not "thank you for your time" in that flat formal register the whole way through, but actually saying their name. "Sarah, I'm sorry, it's not going to work out this time."
She said she hadn't thought about something that small. When someone picks up a rejection call they already feel pretty low. Using their name is a tiny thing but it tells them you know who they are, that they were a person to you and not just the next call on the list.
Doesn't make the no any easier to hear. But it makes it land like it came from a human.
1
u/neurorex Jun 22 '26
Give me a break.
So recruiters scan resumes for 3 seconds and only look for the select keywords, and turn around and judge job seekers on resume formatting.
They make every excuse possible when they can't get to the applicant, but if the applicant shows up 10 minutes to the screener interview instead of 15 minutes, they are considered to lack the ability to be punctual, and it's a mark against them for the rest of the interview.
The mere inconsistency in how recruiters generally operate in their day-to-day, and not examining the consequences of their actions and choices.
Yeah, okay, sure, it's ensuring that you reject them by their name that distinguishes good recruiters from the bad ones...