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An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

blog.landing.jobs

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Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#21

Post by column »

dijit wrote: post #10

I've hired people before, and usually when it comes time to send rejection emails it can be very hard. If someone clearly isn't right for the job, you owe it to them to mention why- I'm an engineer, I work in absolutes and "Culture fit" or something so wishy-washy doesn't roll well off my fingers. But how do you tell people that they lack basic knowledge or experience in certain areas without sounding bitchy or attac…

How about the generic but at least semi-informative

"We received your application as [JOBTITLE] and thank you for your interest in our company. After careful review of the applications for this position, we regret to inform you that we are considering other candidates which match the skills and qualifications of this position more closely. We will keep your application for the next 2 months should the position reopen, if you wish to oppose this please click this link."

That said I completely oppose OP's (satirical) template. If you want news, grab a phone and just make the call. If you can't get an answer after a reasonable time and an active research from your side, is it really a place you want to work at?

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#22

Post by thaumasiotes »

gkop wrote: post #17
vdaniuk wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Since many companies in the U.S. do send rejection emails Are you able to provide any kind of data backing up that claim? I am strongly in the "don't hate the player, hate the game" camp on this issue. This is NOT a basic courtesy but a business process that requires a lot of resources to be at least somewhat meaningful. How long do you think it takes to write a rejection letter that provides useful, actionable data…

Try applying for a position at a large company with a reputation for a highly-engineered hiring process, eg. Google [0]. Rarely will you get specific feedback, but you can expect to get a notification when you are no longer under consideration. [0] At Google's scale, some candidates fall through the cracks. But their recruiting process does mandate rejection notifications. It'd be great if a Google recruiter would ba…

I interviewed at Google; they said they would give me a decision at some (soon) future point, and they did. They called me during work hours to do it... but they definitely did give me an explicit rejection.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#23

Post by ghaff »

vdaniuk wrote: post #13
gkop wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is merely a convenient excuse for companies behaving inconsiderately. Since many companies in the U.S. do send rejection emails, it's clearly one of any number of other reasons why some companies neglect this basic courtesy. The silver lining is, you probably don't want to work for these companies anyway :)

>Since many companies in the U.S. do send rejection emails Are you able to provide any kind of data backing up that claim? I am strongly in the "don't hate the player, hate the game" camp on this issue. This is NOT a basic courtesy but a business process that requires a lot of resources to be at least somewhat meaningful. How long do you think it takes to write a rejection letter that provides useful, actionable data…

My impression is that rejection letters are fairly common but they're almost universally in the form letter "no fit at this time. Will keep on file" vein.

Maybe some companies do more personalized responses but I've never seen it and I would think it would often be difficult. As with many other things, say picking talks for conferences, you're usually not so much rejecting as you're picking some other person or thing. And, yes, there are a lot of reasons the typical HR department would have issues with brutal honesty even aside from the effort it would take.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#24

Post by uncletaco »

getsat wrote: post #3

The reason you don't get a reply (in the US anyways) is for legal reasons. If you say anything which could be even remotely (mis)interpreted as some sort of bias, your company could lose lots of money/time and potentially go bankrupt due to a discrimination lawsuit. It's sadly safer to just not reject candidates at all. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I'm pretty sure laziness would have more to do with not getting a proper rejection than the chance of triggering a lawsuit. If I'm applying to a small to medium sized business in my neck of the woods then nine times out of ten when I don't get a reply its because the hiring manager hasn't taken the time out of their week to get back to me.

When I applied to a local company the hiring manager kept emailing me about how he was "swamped" or some other variation of the word busy and would get back to me in the next few days. He did that for about two weeks before calling me and finding out I had accepted an offer somewhere else.

Heck when I applied to Google the recruiter (who contacted me first) took 5 months to get back to me after I sent in my CV and transcript, apologized profusely, and told me that the reason it took so long was because who ever was handling my case left abruptly without handing off the cases she was working on.

I know these are anecdotal but I have an extremely hard time believing that HR managers in the US are so worried about triggering a discrimination lawsuit that they choose inaction.

Very little, if anything, supports your claim. A quick search on the topic of why recruiters don't follow up with candidates reveals that the vast majority of people in the industry just have a really hard time with the hiring process. Its just plain broken.

Does your company not get back to candidates because they fear a discrimination lawsuit? Someone else's? I would love to know which companies' HR teams or recruiters have discrimination lawsuits at the top of their "things I'm really scared could happen if I reply to a job seeker" list.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#25

Post by jawns »

It sounds, based on the comments here, that both job seekers and employers can sometimes run into a frustrating lack of response (job seekers when they submit an application and never hear back; employers when they try to engage an applicant and never hear back).

I wonder if there might be a business opportunity here.

Suppose there were some way for both job applicants and employers to publicly commit themselves to offering at least a cursory reply (sort of how LinkedIn guarantees a response to each InMail, even if the response is just a boilerplate "Not interested").

If either party fails to respond within some designated timeframe, the penalty could be as simple as publicly noting the fact that they broke their commitment, which is likely to affect their trustworthiness.

This would be advantageous for both parties.

There might even be some decent money-making potential in being such a commitment clearinghouse. For instance, employers who participate might pay to have their jobs listed on the site, with the expectation that a "reply guaranteed" will be an effective way to bring in applicants.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#26

Post by x5n1 »

Akkuma wrote: post #5

What is ironic is I had no reply on a job posting on landing.jobs after talking directly with landing.jobs too. I was able to leave feedback directly through the site that the company was unresponsive, but landing.jobs hasn't communicated since that feedback. Update: Proof http://imgur.com/m34rFUX

too meta man, too meta.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#27

Post by burger_moon »

rbcgerard wrote: post #7
getsat wrote: post #3

The reason you don't get a reply (in the US anyways) is for legal reasons. If you say anything which could be even remotely (mis)interpreted as some sort of bias, your company could lose lots of money/time and potentially go bankrupt due to a discrimination lawsuit. It's sadly safer to just not reject candidates at all. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

A simple "you are no longer being considered for the [x] position, thank you for your application" is all most people are looking for.

Yes this is all I want. I track all my applications and what stage I'm at with each company. It makes it incredibly difficult when they can't even be bothered to send me a generic rejection email.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#28

Post by gkop »

justizin wrote: post #6
gkop wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is merely a convenient excuse for companies behaving inconsiderately. Since many companies in the U.S. do send rejection emails, it's clearly one of any number of other reasons why some companies neglect this basic courtesy. The silver lining is, you probably don't want to work for these companies anyway :)

I have often found myself working _for_ people who had the same negative experiences at other companies, so not only do all bad hiring practices create negative reputation, they create an entire class of people who would be perfectly happy if you didn't exist at all. :)

On "Who is hiring", you can abstain from upvoting those companies where you had a negative experience (or even downvote them, if you feel that's justified).

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#29

Post by cwp »

This is funny, and probably very satisfying, but if you need to send this kind of email, you're doing it wrong. I get that other industries are different, but if you're looking for a job in the tech world, do your homework.

To (a small amount of) background research on companies that would fit with your situation. Find out what the open reqs are, and who the hiring manager is for each one. Pre-screen yourself by finding a req that you're qualified for and apply specifically for that job. Write a custom cover letter for each application, even if it's just an informal 4-line email. If possible, get a warm introduction.

If you do all that still don't get a quick response, move on without a second thought. You don't want to work for this company anyway.

Re: An email template for candidates frustrated with unresponsive employers

#30

Post by jakejake »

dijit wrote: post #10

I've hired people before, and usually when it comes time to send rejection emails it can be very hard. If someone clearly isn't right for the job, you owe it to them to mention why- I'm an engineer, I work in absolutes and "Culture fit" or something so wishy-washy doesn't roll well off my fingers. But how do you tell people that they lack basic knowledge or experience in certain areas without sounding bitchy or attac…

"Thank you for your application, unfortunately the position has been filled."

That doesn't say anything that can be misconstrued as discriminatory hiring.

Sadly as an employer you are sometimes rewarded for being considerate with an argumentative or nasty reply.

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