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My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

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Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#21

Post by ErrantX »

diN0bot wrote: post #9
ErrantX wrote: post #7

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me. When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz" I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you.…

just curious: did your trust last or did it turn out to be unfounded?

sort of lasted - the person that hired me was a good guy to the last. The CEO was a bit of a tit..... and in the end he got too involved in my department so I left.

But the day-to-day people I worked for/with were trustworthy.

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#22

Post by nihilocrat »

ErrantX wrote: post #7

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me. When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz" I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you.…

You got a rejection with reasons on it?

I've always either gotten either "We are pleased you interviewed but we are continuing the search" or no response at all.

Was I terrible? Was I awesome, but you cut me out for unfair and irrational reasons? I'll never know, and never know how I can improve. Does a great job of wrecking your psyche when you've been doing it for months straight.

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#24

Post by ErrantX »

nihilocrat wrote: post #22
ErrantX wrote: post #7

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me. When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz" I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you.…

You got a rejection with reasons on it? I've always either gotten either "We are pleased you interviewed but we are continuing the search" or no response at all. Was I terrible? Was I awesome, but you cut me out for unfair and irrational reasons? I'll never know, and never know how I can improve. Does a great job of wrecking your psyche when you've been doing it for months straight.

yup most of the other responses I got were along the same lines as you mention. Some had some nice cut and paste "you did xyz wrong" stuff but nothing that was helpful.

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#25

Post by nihilocrat »

Alex3917 wrote: post #15

I applied and got an interview. I sent in my application as a PDF, but I also made this lens which Seth apparently liked: http://www.squidoo.com/Reading_Optional

I'm new to this term "lens".

It seems like it's just a fancy word for "how-to" or "neat bit of information / call to take some sort of action".

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#26

Post by lallysingh »

ErrantX wrote: post #7

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me. When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz" I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you.…

I sent one in to John Carmack way back in the day (circa 1996-1997). I was massively underqualified at the time.

His response was personal and compassionate. It stung at the time, but long term I've got a lot more respect for the man for it.

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#27

Post by steveplace »

nihilocrat wrote: post #25
Alex3917 wrote: post #15

I applied and got an interview. I sent in my application as a PDF, but I also made this lens which Seth apparently liked: http://www.squidoo.com/Reading_Optional

I'm new to this term "lens". It seems like it's just a fancy word for "how-to" or "neat bit of information / call to take some sort of action".

lens in this sense means "Do my SEO for me"

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#28

Post by webwright »

ErrantX wrote: post #7

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me. When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz" I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you.…

In a job situation (where you have fulltime HR folks and a relatively small pool of applicants), this works greak.

But, I suspect he has the same problem PG has. Rejection doesn't mean that something went wrong. And, in a high-volume scenario like this, he sure as hell doesn't have time to give people thorough responses.

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#29

Post by ErrantX »

webwright wrote: post #28
ErrantX wrote: post #7

too nicey nicey. It doesn't sound sincere to me. When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz" I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you.…

In a job situation (where you have fulltime HR folks and a relatively small pool of applicants), this works greak. But, I suspect he has the same problem PG has. Rejection doesn't mean that something went wrong. And, in a high-volume scenario like this, he sure as hell doesn't have time to give people thorough responses.

Agreed. But he didnt have to patronise them with a response like that..... :)

Re: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?

#30

Post by [deleted] »

swombat wrote: post #5
brk wrote: post #3

I'd actually be a little bit insulted to get that as a response. It reads like a load of over-dramatized crap. Part of what's wrong with so many of these internet-marketers is that everything seems to be positioned as various degrees of "super rockstar ninja greatness". There is never any bad, unmarketable, stupid ideas. IE: no one wants to put their reputation on the line by making a potentially bad call. So, he won…

It does ring a bit empty, doesn't it. Bad move overall, imho. I've lost some respect for Seth Godin because of that letter. A more normal rejection letter would have been more appropriate. This letter makes him sound a bit too kitsch.

[deleted]
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