May 27, 2021
I didn’t get the job…
It was an really long hiring process. I submitted for this position over 2 months ago and when they finally got back to me they dribbled the interviews out, 8 in total, with 7 people.
I interview pretty well so I felt that so many interviews meant I was progressing. I also had a former colleague who was not doing the hiring but was a CxO in the company.
At one point they asked me to submit a paper describing my “Management Philosophy”. I happily did so and got good feedback from them, the hiring manager told me he enjoyed reading it and actually quoted parts of it in our interview session.
I had my last interview last Friday and was told this was the “Final” step. It was with the Chief HR Person and it, also, went really well.
Then nothing till yesterday. I received the most gracious rejection email I’ve ever gotten. People should take note, this is how you write a rejection letter;
“We arrived at the difficult decision of moving forward with another candidate for this role. To be clear, everyone acknowledged the immense value you would bring to the team, so it came down to a few details between two qualified candidates. You also had more than one champion on the interview panel. I say this in the hope that we can stay in touch as [Company Name] continues to grow and hire. Our doors are open any time.”
Of course, when I first received the news I wasn’t hit by the graciousness of the note, I was angry. My time had been wasted. I wished them ill and that the person they picked over me would fail, miserably.
I started to write a response in that frame of mind.
I try to recognize where I’m being emotionally immature and I knew this was one of those times. As temporarily satisfying as “flaming” them with their stupidity would be it would only be temporary and I’d be burning bridges.
Abraham Lincoln said words to the effect…and I can’t find the exact quote so it may be apocryphal…
“when you want to write an angry letter to someone you should write it and put it in a drawer for the night then take it out the next morning and tear it up.”
So I sat back down and revisited the situation. I reread the rejection note. I thought back over all the interviews and I realized these were not bad people who were out to hurt me. They made a decision. One that disappointed me but a decision they felt was correct and for the good of their company (to be clear, they made a HUGE mistake but they didn’t do it maliciously :) ).
I rewrote my reply in that frame of mind. I went on LinkedIn and sent my former colleague a note thanking him for the opportunity to interview and to wish him and his company the best in the future. I sent a few more notes along the same line to people at the company I had encountered.
When this was all done I felt…not great…still disappointed…but better.
And now, the most exhausting part, is the realization that the job hunt, I thought was over, continues…
