I dislike how so often it seems employers tend to dump your resume / application into a black hole if they aren’t interested in you, and you never ever hear back from them. Why can’t they just send an email saying thanks but no thanks? At least let me know that spending forever filling out your application with all of the exact same information that can be found on my resume was received, perused, and noted somewhere.
In this day and age, sending a response email should be the norm. I’ve run across several variations such as when they even send an email with a scanned letter attachment as the rejection — I’m looking at you Halliburton. (not sure why… Why not just say ‘No’ in the email? Why the extra step?) And it’s always nice to receive a physical note in the mail, even if it is a bit of an outdated method. For as much as I make light of their responses, I truly do appreciate that the firm / company doesn’t do what so very many do and let you hang in the ether wondering if the application was even received. But some go a bit too far and don’t seem to put much thought into what the letter actually says, and that is where they calmly step over the line of professional courtesy.
#1. I’ve never had a prospective employer spend money to make sure that I knew, that they knew that I knew, that I was rejected. The venerable law offices of King & Spalding apparently want to make sure you are aware that they don’t want you. And they’re willing spend money to ensure it. K&S sends out certified, signature required letters of rejection. So not only do you find out you’re rejected, but you likely have to trek down to the post office to find out. I initially had the paranoid thought that this might have been specific to me, but using some Google-fu comes back with a lot of the same quizical responses wondering why the hell they would do this (1, 2).
Thanks for the convenience guys. You spent $6.48 to let me know you aren’t interested…. I think I might need to apply to absolutely everything you have open on your career page. You know, just to be certain.
#2. I applied to a firm which had over 100 attorneys in 5 offices around the country, 50 of which were located at the office I was applying to. The reply:
Small size? In what world is your firm a ‘small firm’ ? I get it if you aren’t hiring, but don’t make something up which is trivially untrue. Maybe they just haven’t bothered updating their rejection letter since they actually were a small firm.
#3. I got a rejection from a prosecutors office. The rejection itself had a bit much religion parsed throughout the letter (weird in its own right). But the last line almost seemed like a threat…
maybe I’m just paranoid, but it just sounds ominous.
Just to show the opposite side of the coin and to give you a story of an amazingly helpful rejection… I sent out an application via email and received a phone call from the partner 2 minutes later from a firm of about 35 attorneys. Sadly, he basically said that unless I had a book of business, they weren’t interested. He could have left it there, but instead he invited me to lunch to pass along advice and some contacts. It took him about a full 2 minutes and cost him nothing, no stamp, no letter. Yet I hung up the phone with a massively better opinion of that firm than any that have sent me letters. I’m not counting the lunch as something prospective employers should do; as that was above and beyond.