When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz"
I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you."
I got the job too :)
Rule 101 of rejections: don't be nice. Be kind certainly but tell them where they went wrong. They've already been rejected - sucking up helps neither party....
good story lallysingh. I've been amazed at how many leaders in their fields are willing to give their time and input, especially if you respect their time.
Two quick stories:
1. Once emailed a prominent venture capitalist/technologist a question. It was maybe 15 words long. He responded in 5 minutes with a one word answer that truly answered my question and helped tremendously.
2. Another time I was taking a data mining class while working and I asked my professor a question. It was regarding a situation at work and a solution that I proposed. After not hearing back from my first email, I sent him a follow up email asking if he had received it. He finally replied and said that if I wanted the answer, I would have to hire him at $250/hr, his going rate. Sure, I can understand his stance in that just b/c I paying for his class and instruction does not mean that I can get free consulting. But, why couldn’t he tell me that with a reply to the first email? Why couldn’t he just tell me if my proposed solution was in the ball park or not? Here’s the zinger, I wrote the same email to the author of the book we were using in this class. He responds in 24 hours with sincere and honest feedback regarding my proposal as well as a PDF of 4 pages of the upcoming edition that covered this topic. My respect for the author sky rocketed (and now I cannot recommend his services and books fast enough). Not so much for the professor.
A lot of "busy" people read email on their blackberries, so if the possible actions are difficult (not forwarding or terse responses) they forget about it (since the blackberry marks the item read and then it falls to the bottom of their inbox, never to be seen again.)
I've always either gotten either "We are pleased you interviewed but we are continuing the search" or no response at all.
Was I terrible? Was I awesome, but you cut me out for unfair and irrational reasons? I'll never know, and never know how I can improve. Does a great job of wrecking your psyche when you've been doing it for months straight.
I've always either gotten either "We are pleased you interviewed but we are continuing the search" or no response at all.
The no response at all shit is lame. I've had that happen to me twice, and it's just rude. Even a curt form letter is better than simply discarding a person once a company decides they have no use for someone.
The worst one was when the HR person just couldn't seem to tell me or send an email. She kept delaying me telling that they hadn't decided yet, but she'd have an answer by such-and-such date. Eventually she just stopped returning calls.
I was at the point where it took me awhile (3 weeks?) to get the hint, desperately clutching to any sort of lead.
yup most of the other responses I got were along the same lines as you mention. Some had some nice cut and paste "you did xyz wrong" stuff but nothing that was helpful.
sort of lasted - the person that hired me was a good guy to the last. The CEO was a bit of a tit..... and in the end he got too involved in my department so I left.
But the day-to-day people I worked for/with were trustworthy.
In a job situation (where you have fulltime HR folks and a relatively small pool of applicants), this works greak.
But, I suspect he has the same problem PG has. Rejection doesn't mean that something went wrong. And, in a high-volume scenario like this, he sure as hell doesn't have time to give people thorough responses.
I have a hunch he could spend a day or two sending out personalized emails to each person, be it one paragraph or a page in length. He's in the business of building people to be stronger marketers; he's not doing much a service to them in telling them they are awesome but not awesome enough.
I think Godin could learn a bit from the devotion Gary Vaynerchuk shows to his audience.
When I was applying for jobs I used to get back all sorts of crap like this.. it's silly. One company got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple: "sorry your not for us because xyz"
I reapplied instantly and in the "why are you applying" space put "because your the first company not to reject me with complete bull and just gave me a straight honest answer. I trust you."
I got the job too :)
Rule 101 of rejections: don't be nice. Be kind certainly but tell them where they went wrong. They've already been rejected - sucking up helps neither party....