Responding to a "thanks but no thanks" letter/email after applying for a job

In My Humble Opinion
1

Let’s say you apply for a job that you think you’re perfectly suited for, like something where the job requirements say “x years of <y>, degree in <z>” etc. etc. and you’ve pretty much got all of them. You receive back something that looks suspiciously like a form letter that says “thanks, but no thanks, we’re continuing to look for someone better suited to the position.”

Does it ever make any sense to respond politely and say something like “Can you give me more information about why you said “no” because it sure does seem to me like I fit every qualification you list.” (obviously worded better, but you get the idea.)

Some friends and I were yakking about this the other night (it happened to a friend-of-a-friend, she didn’t ultimately respond but was seriously considering it) and were divided on whether or not it made any sense. On the one hand, you’ve got nothing to lose since they already told you that you’re out of the running. On the other hand, you don’t want to piss anyone off. We didn’t come to any conclusions, so what says the Dope?

2

Don’t. They will never tell you, and you look like a yahoo to boot – and there’s no telling that another opportunity with this company, or with someone involved in the current hiring process, won’t come again relatively soon.

The vast majority of companies are way too lawsuit-wary to possibly respond to this, even if they had a reason to want to spend the time discussing this with you (which they don’t). If I were doing the hiring, I would figure that the applicant was either trying to sue me or trying to set themselves up to counter all of my points, and try to argue their way into the job. No thanks.

3

I would think you could follow up with a phone call or email and ask for some tips on how to better present yourself the next time, or if there is something you could work on to make yourself more marketable in that position…?

Warning though, sometimes it really just comes down to you and the other person and the reason is intangible…or something they won’t say (sorry, he’s a guy with no kids, for example)

4

Assuming you got to the interview stage, I think it’s reasonable to contact the interviewer to request feedback.

5

I personally wouldn’t. This happened to me a few years ago. You would have had a hard time writing a better job description for me, and I had a director in the company (who I used to work for) give a personal recommendation. The hiring manager looked at my resume for a few minutes and told me he didn’t see what he was looking for. I didn’t even have a chance to screw up the interview.

I wrote it off as either politics (he had someone else in mind), or he didn’t know how to make a good hiring decision…so I didn’t want to work for him anyway.

I never contacted him about it, and never looked back.
-D/a

6

I’ve done the interviewing/hiring thing several times. It’s a pain in the ass that I generally prefer to remove as quickly as possible. I would not respond to a letter requesting feedback. I’m not a guidance counselor. Once I’ve interviewed you, passed on you, and signed a “thanks but no thanks” form letter, I’m done with you. I do not need, wish, or derive any benefit from further contact with you. I have other things to do. Go away.

7

If you turned down a guy who asked you for a date for whatever deficiency you saw in him, would you like him asking you for feedback? Would you be honest, or say, “you’re great, but we just don’t click?” The interviewer or prospective boss will just think you are going to respond with reasons why the reasons they turned you down are not valid, and they won’t want that. Or more likely HR will get the letter, and usually HR has no clue as to why a hiring manager made a decision. It might come down to a better candidate, and the interviewer clearly can’t talk about anyone else.

8

Sometimes, the job is already filled before the request for applications even goes out. The ad is basically just a legal, or departmental requirement.

Whatever the reason for not getting the job, you’ll rarely get the truth of it; if you’re deigned a response at all. Sheesh. You’re lucky to get a rejection letter.

9

This is it.

Best wishes,
hh

10

I’m not going to be ignored, Dan …

11

I’ve been on a number of job-seeking skills courses and training sessions in my time, and this question’s come up on a few occasions. Each time, the advice from the bright-eyed and cheery course leader has been “Yes – it’s a good idea to ask for feedback, even if you didn’t get the job. That way you can learn from your mistakes and increase your chances of getting the next job you apply for. Any reasonable employer will be happy to do that.”

And, of course, I never have, because their advice comes from some HR Best Practice “Positive Thinking for the Recently Redundant” handbook, while the jobs I’m after exist in the real world, where you’re lucky to even get a rejection letter.

But it does bring to mind sort of a funny story: many years ago, I worked for the local county Education Department, in a section that was about to be radically downsized – I was going to be out the door in 30 days and counting, and new prospects were looking a bit thin on the ground.

Then, one day, my manager came up to me and said, "Oh, WotNot… I wonder if you could help me out here. I’ve just had a call from the Personnel Officer at the local college, and it seems they have a new position they want to advertise; but since they’ve never had anyone doing that job, and we have, he was asking if I could help him with wording the job description.

“Unfortunately, I’ve just suddenly become terribly busy, so I thought that, since* they want someone to do the job you’re doing now*, you might be able to come up with a description of the sort of person they should be looking for. ;)”

So I got out my CV, and copied and pasted all my relevant experience, qualifications, and best qualities into a job description, and sent it off to the Personnel Officer, who was extremely grateful, and within a short time, the college advertised this new job.

Which I applied for.

Of course, I was invited to interview – how could I not be? I was the perfect candidate.

It was the worst interview I’ve ever been involved in, in any capacity, ever. I was sat in a hard, wooden chair in the centre of a room that was empty of any other furniture, except for the long table, about eight feet away, behind which sat five stoney-faced interrogators, silhouetted against the bright summer sun streaming through the window behind them.

And as I sat there, squinting through the glare and sweating profusely into my ill-advised winter-weight suit, it rapidly became apparent that I was not just the only person in the room with any idea about the technical or operational requirements of the job, I was the only one not actively opposed to me getting it.

I later discovered that the job had only been created in the first place as a means of employing some kid they had hanging around the place, helping out, and everyone involved was thoroughly pissed off at the Personnel Department for forcing them to obey the law and go through the sham of advertising and wasting their time with interviews.
So yeah… good times, good times.

12

I suspect it must be a cultural thing because I’ve applied for several jobs with Government departments here and they’ve always been more than happy to provide feedback when requested- some of it has been extremely useful, too.

So yeah, I’d definitely request feedback. The worst they’re going to do is ignore you, after all.

The thing is, this is totally understandable when it’s someone “trying their luck” with the application- ie, they’re not really that suited for the job but are applying on the off-chance anyway. But when the job description fits a particular candidate almost perfectly, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for that candidate to politely ask- and expect a meaningful answer to- “Why not?” when told they haven’t been successful in their application for said position.

13

[quote=“Martini_Enfield, post:12, topic:568129”]

So yeah, I’d definitely request feedback. The worst they’re going to do is ignore you, after all.

That’s not the worst they can do. The worst they can do is blackball you so you won’t even be considered in the future. A few companies I worked for kept “do not hire” lists of people who, well, wouldn’t be hired under any circumstances. Many of the people on that list were there because they discussed something that put them in a protected class and a few were there because they were a PITA to someone, usually a HR person or the receptionist. (By PITA, I don’t mean “persistent.” I mean “persistent to the point of pissing someone off.”)

As others have mentioned upthread, the American culture tends to be litigious, or at least human resources offices perceive it to be so. If a company gives an applicant any information in writing beyond “sorry about your luck”, that communication can be used against the company in a lawsuit, and no HR manager who wants to keep his job is going to help a candidate win a lawsuit.

14

That’s a good point, and I think you’re absolutely right. My impression is that there’s considerable difference between government departments or other large employers (I’ve had very positive experiences with the BBC, for instance) who are generally hiring more-or-less constantly, and have a large, professional HR department dedicated to the process, and smaller private companies who hire only periodically, and usually have a more ad hoc approach.

15

I think it depends on the industry. In my industry it is likely that you have some kind of connection to the firm that you are applying to (and if you do not have that connection, you better get working on your networking) and so it would be completely acceptable to request some feedback.

16

In my experience, if they have a legitimate reason for not wanting you, it usually comes out somewhere during the interview, like “what experience have you had with the Quantum 5000?”

But there are dozens of reasons a person doesn’t get hired that no one will ever tell you:

You showed up for the interview with dirty fingernails and/or bad breath.
You’re too old, too black, too female, too Jewish, too gay, too blond. . .
We think you’ll jump jobs as soon the economy improves.
The job was only posted because HR demanded it.
Your accent makes you sound like a hick.
Your accent makes you sound like a smart-ass New Yorker.
We went through one hundred resumes, interviewed a dozen people and don’t remember you at all.
You’re a Type A personality. We only want Type B.
You violated one of our unwritten rules of interviewing.
There’s nothing wrong with you at all. It pretty much came down to flipping a coin, and you lost.

17

Exactly my view.

18

From the perspective of a former hiring manager:

Don’t bother. Those form letters (I call 'em “bite me” letters. Thanks for your time, but… bite me. No job for you.) come from HR, not from the person who made the decision. HR has no idea what ruled you out. The hiring manager may have made the decision based on something that had nothing to do with you, such as the person they made the offer to had twice your qualifications and experience. Or was the CEO’s nephew. You never know. I never had the time to offer people feedback and most of the time, it would have been rather unflattering and I would have avoided at all costs having to say to someone, “Well, you interviewed well, and your resume looks good on paper, but we gave you a performance task to gauge your skills and you were the lowest scorer.”

That may be perfectly honest, but then it opens the door to debate. Well, what were the correct answers? Can I see the key? What if I disagree with how I was graded? As a manager, I do not have time to get sucked into a debate about why I rejected maybe 100 people for the same position. Generally, people aren’t really looking for constructive feedback; it’s more like they are grade-grubbing. As if some job seeker website somewhere advised people to follow up with the hiring manager so you can do better next time.

Look, just move on. Spare yourself the agony of second-guessing every little thing. It’s a morale killer and ends up making you bitter and resentful.

19

As an interviewee I, personally, wouldn’t ask.

As an interviewer, I wouldn’t mind being asked and I would respond truthfully. But, then again, I have only interviewed students who are about to graduate from college (except for once), so I feel that any feedback I give them would be useful to them.

20

Just to clarify - I’m not talking about getting to the interview stage then being rejected. I’m talking about responding to an ad that lists requirements like:

BA in Gadget Whirling
5 Years experience in Really Big Yellow Gadget Whirling
3 Years experience in Small Blue Gadget Whirling
4 Years Project Management for Industrial Strength Gadget Whirling Projects
(etc etc)

Person in question has the requirements down so closely that it’s almost as if they took her resume and wrote the job requirements from it.

She emails in resume, gets a response in a few days that says “Thanks but no thanks, you don’t meet the job requirements.” Not “we’ve hired someone else”, not “we’ve closed the position” - very clearly, you’re not being interviewed because you don’t meet the requirements.

And as I said, this is perfectly hypothetical - I barely know the person in question, it happened a couple months ago, it just came up in conversation and I took an interest in it, as I’ve been in similar positions and was sorely tempted to ask “WTF?!? What the hell are you looking for if I don’t match these
requirements?!?”

Oh, and to clarify again - this isn’t a “Hmm I have a friend, yeah, a friend, that’s it, who got rejected from a job. So when I… I mean my friend… sent in a resume…” type of thing. I’m not looking for a job, I’ve got so much work to do atm that I barely have time to screw around on the Dope.