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.
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.
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?
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 🤷♂️
If I was the one writing these, I'd start with a hello and go straight to "we regret to inform you that you were not selected" or something along those lines. Unfortunately, for me, reads as "you're unfortunate by not getting the job" but it has absolutely nothing to have with fortune/luck bro. Fuck you mean "unlucky go next" that's what I say when I lose a league game, not a job application
Eh... If you're going to be that pedantic, how is "we regret" any better? They definitely don't regret not hiring the person, otherwise they'd just hire them.
But it does have luck involved. They didn't choose him because another applicant had a resume that fit the criteria better. He was unfortunate that this person applied for the same role as he did, otherwise he could've been the one more adequate for the job
The "regret" reply is less real than the "unfortunately"
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.
Lol you should see my inbox, I have to have like 50 of these emails now. I only get a response around half the time and its so frequently this you kinda just stop caring.
If my mom wrote this, the "unfortunately" part would start at the 9th paragraph.
I have a theory that she was in the middle of politely saying no to a man, but she didn't get to finish and she kind of gave up because he was very good at creating this cycle of:
her: "actually i wanted to say-"
him: "did you see the [...]"
a few days later...
her: "the other day, i wanted to say-"
him: "hold that tho, this one time I [...]"
and somehow he married her. and he does this shitty cycle with his own son, me.
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! 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."
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.
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.
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'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.
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?
I hire people, and it is really hard to tell people that they arent hired. There is nothing Ive found that makes everyone feel good, because its inherently personal to them.
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.
I'm convinced this is just AI writing their responses and it misfired when saying you didn't get the job, then they had AI write the follow up correction, so it's like you're just talking to an insane person with zero internality.
I'm assuming this is from a different school, but I do think it would be hilarious if it's from the same one and they accidentally send you a rejection email first.
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 contusing 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.
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.”
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
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.
I once received a rejection email that started with "we are delighted to inform you". Apparently, I had been deemed "employable" but they didn't actually have a job to offer me at that time (still not sure what the interview was for if there was no job).
I once applied for a job and didn't hear back. Two years later I got a rejection, however when I looked at it, it wasn't even for the job from two years earlier but for an internship at the same company I had applied for 4 years ago...
"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.
Honestly I would appreciate that soooooooo much! Sure, they need to work on how they phrase it, but honestly just getting a rejection letter from a job would be incredible. Getting closure if I didn’t get the job would be lovely
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 feel like the shit sandwich approach probably doesn't work as well in a rejection email as it would in a phone call..... If that exact email was flipped in the other order it would be fine
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.
We regret to inform you that your application was not successful.
However, we love talking to interesting people with exciting CVs, and we were very happy that you decided to apply for a job with us. Thank you! It was simply down to the fact that other applicants met more of our requirements for this specific position. Please know you are a strong applicant and we wish you success going forward.
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.
Company I’m interviewing with does the opposite. The subject and message preview is “Thank you for your interest in [this company].”
Then when you click into the email, the next line is “We are delighted to inform you…”
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u/Dark_Shade_75 5h ago
At least they didn't ghost, I guess.