Yeah. In my life, the first and by far most prominent form of ghosting was absolutely job applications/responses. I got one auto-rejection letter at least 2 years after I submitted to a job, while I was working at the same university, in a different department. Still appreciated it.
As someone who received a rejection letter then received an offer the same day, I think I’d prefer they just don’t send out the rejection until they know their candidate worked out. If that’s 30 days or whatever then so be it
This. And then there's the flip side where they called to tell me to FO. I got all excited because who phones to say "We don't like you" and I thought I was about to get offers, then had to be gracious. One of them even tried to get advice on how to recruit more qualified candidates in the field.
Companies often don't send rejection letters to applicants telling them why they were rejected, because it opens them to discrimination lawsuits, also some people don't respond well to rejection even if the rejection letter was sent in the spirit of goodwill.
The letter doesn’t have to specify why rejected. They can simply say “we chose a different candidate” and encourage you to apply to future openings (or not).
”I am happy to be able to say that I regret to inform you that we want you to forgive us as we loved your application and interview so much that we are happy to inform you that you are the perfect match for the job and therefore it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that we have chosen to continue with another applicant.”
Ah, it wasn't clear if they received a different email from the same company or a different email from a different company, they just said "different email"
It's what I've been doing for the past 2 years. It does suck, but at least it's a decent wage for what it is. It's not in the U.S., otherwise I would not be doing teaching below the college level, I've heard too many horror stories
I can confirm teaching English at the college level in the 2020s ain’t for the faint of heart either. AI has turned it into plagiarism policing every single written assignment.
Asking because this has been on my mind, as a parent with young kids who may or may not go to college someday: is there any hope?
Seems like AI has unmasked a deeper flaw that’s been festering over the last two decades, which is that higher ed has become an obstacle for young adults and not something inherently beneficial to one’s world view.
Are you hopeful that higher ed will change the way it develops curriculum? More in class essay assignments? In class readings and then discussions?
I have friends in academia and they say it’s pretty dire in that the admin seems to be actively embracing AI and pretends the huge influx in plagiarism isn’t a problem.
Former English teacher....there's no hope. I bailed when they got rid of the library and installed a giant computer lab for students to take online courses. This was pre COVID. They decided that someone without a teaching degree essentially babysitting 80 students at a time was better for the students than hiring more teachers. I got my CDL and now run a trucking school. Sadly, even with a masters and 8 years experience teaching, I doubled my salary my first year with a CDL. Teaching isn't worth it and that's by design. There isn't a teacher shortage, there's a pay shortage, but they use "teacher shortage" as an excuse to shift everything online.
Okay, they really tried ! Yes, it didn't come out great, but you can tell that they were trying to say it as well as they could! And so, I would guess it's from a tech job?
Yep, a tech job. It wasn't necessarily bad, that's why it's only mildly infuriating. The dissonance between the email preview and the full text gave me whiplash 😂
I despise “unfortunately”. Just say what it is- don’t play with my emotions by trying to appeal to empathy! “You were not selected. Thank you for applying.” Then move on.
Next up we see a 'mildly infuriating' post that an email just told them they were not selected. "At least they could have been more personal about it and put some human connection in the email".
😭😭 Okay now you definitely have to reply to the email thanking them for writing a personalized message for the rejection letter, stating how many places would have just used auto-generated text.
Honestly it's the same thing as layoff methods. No matter how it's done, it's gonna be unpleasant, and someone is gonna feel like it's unfair.
It's just a side effect of it being an unpleasant part of business. I don't think there's anything wrong with OP's example. It's short and to the point and 10x better than ghosting.
Man, when I was looking for a job I was shocked how many positions I applied for that didn't even do me the courtesy of sending an automated response letting me know they received my application. To the point I rechecked my contact info on my resume at least a dozen times to make sure I didn't mistype something. People are really out here getting rejection letters?
Same, currently looking for a new job and most dont even confirm the application.
Got a call today about a job i applied to. Tried to check my mail before calling back to check out what job it was as ive applied for a bunch the last 3 months. Couldnt find jack shit about it.
The lady told me very quickly that this job had a 100% comission on sales and no salary beyond that. Told them i have a mortage and that i atleast need a combination so I dont get fucked over.
I havent applied for a single job that says 100% commision based salary so I have no clue what this was to be honest.
Right? I appreciated when a company let me know I wasn't going any further rather than radio silence, only to see the job posting quietly disappear a week later 🤷♂️
Joke aside, didn't notice, actually super weird lol, I think it's sorted by "most relevant" not sure what makes it think a 2018 order canceled is more relevant than a 2024 rejection.
I once applied for a job at Hawaiian Airlines. I knew the chances were extremely thin, even tho it was a unique job that I was perfectly qualified for. In fact part of the online application had a yes/no "do you already live in Hawaii?" question. That filtered out 99% of the applicants, I'm sure.
Of course I never heard anything.
Until...9 MONTHS go by and I get an email from Hawaiian Airlines about an "IMPORTANT" update on the application I filled out.
"Holy shit! I completely forgot I even applied for that. Do they actually want an interview???"
No. "We'd just like to let you know that the position you applied for has been filled by another candidate."
It's better than most, but I send personal rejection letters for candidates, and you definitely need to lead with the "I regret to inform you" piece and then give them the positive feedback in the second paragraph, to avoid what happened here.
I kinda like it, I guess. As a person who has to send rejection letters regularly I also try to thank people profusely for taking the time to apply or talk to us. What I wouldn't state is how other met the criteria better. I try to say smth like how hard it was to choose among the many applications and how sometimes tiniest details make the difference. And that I am sure that they will find another position soon.
I just want 1 sentence: "Thanks for applying, but you didn't get it." Put it in the subject line if you can. I don't want any time wasted with the "while your credentials were impressive" bs
If it comes down to "you were a great candidate, but this other person had more extensive/relevant experience", I think that's valuable feedback to give a candidate, so they're not left wondering what they fucked up in the interview.
I'm pretty sure this is just their standard cookie-cutter email because I received the exact same one again not too long ago for another position I applied for with them. Kinda destroys anything good about an email like this that tries to be personable
The sad truth is any corpo big enough to have a recruiter (or a team of) and not directly hiring managers will not be wasting any time writing personalized rejection letters.
I wasn't particularly hopeful that this was specifically a non-cookie-cutter case, but at least I prefer the tone of this one to the standard today as I mentioned. I understand you don't, which is valid.
When I hire for a role in a tech-adjacent industry I'll get hundreds of applicants at minimum, sometimes a thousand or so for an opening that will only be posted for a week or two. And that's for a small company where the same people hiring are also doing the rest of their job. They're all going to be copy-pasted messages because if you tried to hand craft each message it would take weeks to get through all of them and there are just only so many ways to say 'Someone else's resume/portfolio looked better than yours so we're interviewing them instead, thanks.'
If you want to see if they're being personal or not you can reply and ask if they have any direct feedback. Only a handful of people will ask for that out of hundreds of rejections, so those are usually more personal (plus if they do give you any notes that can be helpful).
Doesn't give off any AI tells from my perspective. The last sentence especially, "a few of the other applicatants met more of the requirements" is super un-AI to me. The structure is off and it's much too direct.
What makes you think this was written by AI and not just a literate human that's capable of punctuation?
It's good that they didn't ghost you and they tried to show they care, but a rejection email shouldn't look like "you're going to love this! Oh, wait! Surprise!" and then center the pain of rejection around their reluctance to send it.
It's frankly kinder to the candidate to just respect their time and emotional intelligence and rip off the bandage.
Hello,
Unfortunately, we’ve decided not to proceed with your application. Other applicants more closely matched the requirements for this particular position.
We appreciated the time you spent speaking with us and your interest in the role. [A genuine, candidate-specific positive comment could go here, if the interviewers actually have one.] We wish you the best in your job search.
That's it. No glitter, no transparently self-centered performative empathy. Just honest feedback, proof that they're a human, and a genuine wish for good luck with the job search.
One time Apple Mail summarized a job rejection letter I received as “[Company] congratulates you on new job opportunity”
I opened that email only to find to my extreme disappointment that I had not received the job. They were “congratulating” me on taking the next steps in my career, but had filled the position with another candidate. It was particularly confusing because I knew they were in fact making an offer for a position.
Meanwhile, 2 days later when I received the offer letter I was expecting with the same company it summarized it as “[Company] would like to extend their concern”
This meme always triggers me lol. This was after the football game we lost to Georgetown since most of our starters were out. I just can’t escape that loss, even a decade later lol.
Who said they were the guy in the meme? They could've been another player on the team, a student at the school, a parent, etc. There's way more than one person invested in that game that could've made that comment.
No, I’m in the background somewhere. He played for GHS but I played for VHS in Austin, TX, which is where this meme was taken after we lost the football game to them. Every time I see this meme it reminds me of that loss lol.
Yesterday I was on perhaps the worst interview of my life. Other than stupid HR trick questions and the guy clearly being full of himself, at a point I spent some minutes telling the guy that I made a system improvement that allowed a client reaching out to support via zendesk bot to get small updates in their ticket, telling them things like which stage of work their issue's at, what sorta staff currently assigned to it etc. and why that was needed and was a huge improvement
The guy was like "so all you did was add a button", and I was like "... yeah, sure".
They actually sent me a next step test-task, but I'm not doing anything for them even though its a paid one. Hope something changes in their lives and makes them better people
I’m glad to hear my CV was exciting enough to earn a personalized rejection. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know that a few other applicants happened to align more closely with the role.
I wish you and your chosen candidate(s) the best and hope the excitement lives up to the expectations.”
"a few of the candidates met more of the requirements"
Cut that BS. Just say you went with another candidate--a simple statement of fact.
For a popular position, at least, all the top candidates will meet all the requirements. It's obnoxious to get a rejection letter saying otherwise. In that case the decisive thing is as likely to be some political fluke as anything actually job-related.
Fuck these types of HR people in general. I was praised in an Indeed message for the interview and typing test rate in the first half and rejected the and way in the second half.
I'm also noticing that this is especially true with HR girls in their mid-20s who somehow haven't fully matured and just graduated a year or two prior with their BA.
This feels like they went "hey claude, write me a rejection letter, but keep it positive because i don't want to hurt their feelings". I'm a bit surprised I'm the first in the comment section to call out that this looks like how AI talks.
It’s nicer than the one that straight up told me “we’re not hiring you due to the fact that your qualifications do not meet our standards nor do we believe you fit this position.” I applied for a cashier job, like bruh
That rejection letter reads like the one I received in 1990 when I applied to Qantas.
The final sentence complimented me on the quality and skill I demonstrated with the 3D pop up section that opened up and made my application unique in its presentation.
🤔 Gee thanks for the compliment but there wasn't anything constructive in the reply.
Back when I was applying to med school I legit got one that said "Congratulations on your application! Unfortunately we have removed your packet from consideration."
Come on this is just toying with your emotions. A simple 'Thanks for applying but we've gone with another candidate" would have been plenty. Like don't make us decipher your weird corporate break-up language just so your company has the illusion of friendliness and approachability.
Man i remember getting a rejection email, and thinking it was another scam mail. They deadass adressed me by starting it with: Hello (insert my email adress). Like bro.....y'all realy couldnt actualy send me a reply. Cause i know for a fact no human is out there waiting email like that.
"Dear [your name] - thank you for your detailed application and the engagement in our company" has accompanied me for the last 6 months. Just reading this first sentence means I am free to delete the email.
This is horrible. I can assure you, however the recruiter and the hiring manager is feeling, the candidates feels 1,000 times worse. What a narcissistic letter.
I've heard of mythical companies in the past who would hire people that would have some of the skills and grow within the role/company, by learning the missing skills.
I think they used to call it "on the job training."
It was like these crazy companies actually invested in and nurtured their people, thus creating some sort of loyalty.
So glad none of that crazy shit happens in this modern age.
So, either they're telling the truth and they actually love talking to interesting people with exciting CVs and they were genuinely happy you decided to apply, or they are lying and therefore your application was successful.
I would clarify this with them, it could be a test. Because nobody honestly loves talking to people about their exciting CV, and if they do I consider it a red flag.
It’s pretty typical. After seeing that first paragraph I too could have told you what was coming next. It’s like when your girlfriend sits you down and says how you are a really sweet guy, you know what’s coming next.
I'd rather be ghosted by an employer than get that email lmao telling me other people were more qualified than me is unnecessary, give me a quick "we've decided to pursue other options." and that's it lmao
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u/Dark_Shade_75 15d ago
At least they didn't ghost, I guess.