Rejection letters: A thing of the past?
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Saw this on the NPR website and it got me to thinking about my previous job searches and what's going on with the job market right now. Basically, the author is upset that her son applied for an internship and never heard back. She argues that he should have at least received a rejection letter.
[url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111990921[/url]
I know what it's like to take the time to tailor my resume and cover letter and never hear anything. It definitely leaves one to wonder what's going on: Did they get my resume? Have they hired anyone yet? What's going on?!
On the other side of the coin, I've watched how resumes are flooding in whenever there is an open position here. I watched a colleague try to sort through a huge stack of resumes for an entry-level job -- and that was after HR had weeded out a lot of the ones sent in. I can't imagine the time and postage it would take to send out rejection letters to all those applicants.
So my question is, do you send out rejection letters? When? Why/why not?
Celeste
[url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111990921[/url]
I know what it's like to take the time to tailor my resume and cover letter and never hear anything. It definitely leaves one to wonder what's going on: Did they get my resume? Have they hired anyone yet? What's going on?!
On the other side of the coin, I've watched how resumes are flooding in whenever there is an open position here. I watched a colleague try to sort through a huge stack of resumes for an entry-level job -- and that was after HR had weeded out a lot of the ones sent in. I can't imagine the time and postage it would take to send out rejection letters to all those applicants.
So my question is, do you send out rejection letters? When? Why/why not?
Celeste
Comments
I suppose I could understand if they were absolutely inundated with applicants and didn't feel like they had the time to send out rejection letters, but our hiring supervisors are always required to send their rejected applications to me anyway so if they were too swamped then I wouldn't have a problem sending out the letters. To me, it's just common courtesy to let the applicants know.
It's kind of tacky, but we just weren't able to get rejection letters out consistently before we decided on this method.
It was a real nightmare.
Fortunately I don't get that many here. If someone comes in I always go out and talk to them briefly, and don't respond to unsolicited resumes that come in the mail. If we ask for any though, I respond to every one. I just don't interview them all.
We strive (and I say strive) to contact all applicants with a postcard letting them know their application was recieved. Then we strive to contact them all again once some kind of decision was reached either by phone or with a letter.
Sometimes when I e-mail or call an applicant back, they are genuinely suprised and appreciative. I get the feeling that the silence experienced by this woman's son is more common than it should be.
We all make mistakes and we all let things slip through the cracks but its inexcusable that the young man's e-mail inquiries about the status of his application were ignored.
I encourage our supervisors to view hiring as a "PR experience". The goal is a person who feels they were treated respectfully regardless of whether they were hired.
Edit, we have considered going to a post card acknowledgement but have not done so yet.
It allows applicants to order an anonymous e-mail to be sent to the employer. In huge text at the top of the homepage is:
[I]"Interviewed for a job and then never heard back? No rejection, no anything? Let your interviewer know how rude that is — without burning any bridges."
[/I] An interesting site for sure. [SIZE=3]
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I receive too many unsolicited and solicited resumes in response to ads to be able to send rejection letters to all. I used to send a postcard saying we received the resume and they would be contacted if there was a fit but it would cost a small fortune now in time and postage.
MA-HR