None of these letters served any purpose- all were simply form letters that offered no information or relevant feedback to the applicant.
Rejection Letters for a faculty position
11–20 of 84 posts
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#12The letter from Yale is excruciatingly short and (to my eyes, anyway) kind of ghetto looking.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Listen people, here's how HN works. If you disagree with somebody, you reply. You don't downvote just because you disagree, and you definitely don't downvote without a reply just because you disagree. Downvotes are for trolls/rude people. Explain to this person why you disagree, I want to know.
I don't know that people disagree. I didn't downvote him, but I can imagine that people might have because his comment is a no more than an uninteresting summary of the blog post. It's not really adding much to the conversation.
Actually what the comment does is simultaneously satirizes the blog post author as a person of a highly privileged status feeling sorry for himself because of the "emotional trauma" of his highly successful job search AND thusly questions the relevance of the post at all. I guess I should have spelled it out more clearly.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#14So this guy is an employed PhD (at the job he "wanted most") and writes a blog post about how emotionally traumatic receiving rejection notices at normal (if not below normal) rates was. I don't get it.
One of the reasons I posted the letters was because I'd not seen a big set of rejection letters anywhere before. In fact, I hadn't actually looked at the mass of them together before myself.
You are right. I didn't outline the reasons why I posted this very explicitly. I hoped that people would form their own opinions about these things, honestly. One reason, for myself, was that I found myself reflecting on failure, persistence, bad job application strategies, etc., and just marveling at the mass of it all there in one spot, all looking rather similar.
The feeling of rejection is one that we all share, and I thought I could connect with people by posting these letters.
Anyways, normal rates, yes. Special post? Guess not. I felt it was worth sharing.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#15So this guy is an employed PhD (at the job he "wanted most") and writes a blog post about how emotionally traumatic receiving rejection notices at normal (if not below normal) rates was. I don't get it.
Listen people, here's how HN works. If you disagree with somebody, you reply. You don't downvote just because you disagree, and you definitely don't downvote without a reply just because you disagree. Downvotes are for trolls/rude people. Explain to this person why you disagree, I want to know.
Listen people, here's how HN works.
If you disagree with somebody, you reply.
You'll note I'm taking the trouble to reply. I checked your join date. It is before several of the many repostings of this statement from pg,
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
first posted 1592 days ago:
"I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness."
I upvote to approve of posts that I agree with and advance the discussion, and I downvote from time to time if all I have to say on an issue is that the statement in the comment I'm downvoting doesn't warrant agreement. I look at my own comments for reasons why people might disagree with them, but I don't feel obligated, as a reader here, to spell out ALL the details about why I might disagree with a comment to everyone who posts a comment containing a dubious statement.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#16So this guy is an employed PhD (at the job he "wanted most") and writes a blog post about how emotionally traumatic receiving rejection notices at normal (if not below normal) rates was. I don't get it.
One of the reasons I posted the letters was because I'd not seen a big set of rejection letters anywhere before. In fact, I hadn't actually looked at the mass of them together before myself. You are right. I didn't outline the reasons why I posted this very explicitly. I hoped that people would form their own opinions about these things, honestly. One reason, for myself, was that I found myself reflecting on failure,…
I don't understand the parent's disdain. Your post definitely was worth sharing. Thank you.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#17None of these letters served any purpose- all were simply form letters that offered no information or relevant feedback to the applicant.
They served one pretty important purpose: conveying the information that he would not be working there.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#18I'm applying for faculty positions at the moment.
I haven't even got one rejection letter yet. A few rejection emails, in each case many months after I'd given up all hope of getting the job, is all I've got to show for it.
Sigh. Good thing I'm pretty.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#19None of these letters served any purpose- all were simply form letters that offered no information or relevant feedback to the applicant.
They served one pretty important purpose: conveying the information that he would not be working there.
Exactly. In my experience, it's far more common to not receive a letter at all. As disappointing as it is to receive a form rejection letter, not hearing anything is worse.
Re: Rejection Letters for a faculty position
#20The letter from Yale is excruciatingly short and (to my eyes, anyway) kind of ghetto looking.
It doesn't force you to read through three introductory paragraphs to find out if the answer is yes or no.