This morning one of my clients in transition sent me an e-mail because she had received a particularly nice ‘reject’ letter in response to the on-line submission of her resume. She pointed out that this was in fact the very first response she has received (although, admittedly, she has not submitted all that many resumes through this method and prefers instead to tap into her network for her next opportunity).
It read like this:
Hi Mary,
We would like to thank you for your interest in XYZ Inc. and the position of Recruitment Advisor for which you applied.
We appreciate the time you invested in preparing your resume however, at this time we will be moving forward with candidates whose skill and experience more closely meet our requirements. We encourage you to continue visiting our careers site at www.xyzcompany.com/jobs and apply for future posted positions in our company, for which you qualify.
We wish you every personal and professional success with your job search. Thank you again, for your interest in XYZ Inc.
Sincerely,
The XYZ Recruiting Team
Being in the HR field herself, she admitted she hadn’t really thought all that much about the letter that is generated to candidates but found that she not only liked this one, she appreciated it. I agree that it was well written and personalized – a kinder, gentler let-down.
I’m interested in hearing from companies who send automated letters. Have you given thought to the person on the receiving end of that letter and perhaps taken the time to craft a more personalized version? Or for those companies who send nothing, why is that?
I so often hear from clients that the most frustrating part of submitting a resume (besides the time and effort taken to jump through all of the hoops of some of the submission processes) is the ‘sound of silence’ after hitting the ‘send’ button. Maybe they’re lucky to get a ‘submission complete’ response but an actual letter …. not so often.
For those of you on the recruitment side of the business, take a moment to understand what your company does and, if it’s nothing or not up to par, take the time to make things right. It’s hard enough for folks looking for their next role these days….lots of frustration and anxiety. Do your bit to make it a little easier for them. It just might be you on the receiving end some day.
Oh and recruiting agencies, this goes for you too! When you’ve reached out to candidates and spent time speaking with them, follow up on the status of their candidacy. The next time you reach out, they may not be inclined to speak with you.
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