In any case, I think I may have gotten the most poorly worded rejection ever.
Thank you for submitting your application for the Assistant Professor of XXXX job opening. We appreciate your interest in XXXX University and for this position. The candidate selected for employment has been notified.
If you have not been contacted and extended an offer, this is notification the position was filled by another candidate. Any applications you've submitted for other job postings are still active. We extend our best wishes to you in your job search.That was it. In its entirety. I don't always buy into the whole "its not you, its me" wording on most of these letters, but at least they try and stop you from jumping off the nearest tall building by telling you that it was a tough decision or implying that you were qualified, but not an ideal "fit"....
And what's with the "If you have not been contacted and extended an offer, this is notification the position was filled by another candidate" stuff? Can't they just pretend like I'm an adult and say I wasn't selected? Maybe even use my name?
That was probably the worst, most awkwardly worded paragraph I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteI've found that fate/God/destiny/whatever always brings me to where I need to be. And sometimes it's not what I originally expected. If I got the first job I applied for (a job at a "prestigious" company), I would never have kept looking and landed upon some amazing experiences, with traveling overseas and still learning lots of cool science at the same time. When one thing doesn't work out, see it as a wake up call that you were meant to do something else.
I definitely feel that everything happens for a reason, and that I can learn something from every situation. I won't go so far as to say that this University was a bad place, but I will say that it is abundantly clear that it was not a good fit for me.
DeleteI'm still debating on what my next step is, and industry is looking like a more attractive option every day....
I had a long faculty rejection letter that looked suspiciously like another one I had gotten from a different university - so I checked - the rejection letter was plagiarized! Is there some website where faculty search committee chairs, like poorly prepared and dishonest students, steal rejection letters?
ReplyDeleteAt least they cared enough to plagerize the very best....
DeleteI just decided after recieving rejection letters that weren't even addressed to me, reflected anything about that I'd sent them or just a mere lack of a reply...This one is badly written. I asked myself "ok, what skills do I have that I've gained from working in industry and what skills do I have from my PhD which are transferable". I decided that there's only so many rejection letters that one can put up with in life..and only so much ego smashing that one can deal with...I'm not stupid and I realised that if these people treat candidates this badly how on earth would they treat a new hire!?? Badly I suspect. My non-academic job is better paid, far more exciting job and I work with academics who write well, are friendly, talk and treat me as a genuine person and not as if I'm the lowest form of life and unqualifed for the job. Yes, Anon 1 is right..somtimes you need to see it as a wake up call that you were supposed to be doing something else.
ReplyDeleteI can deal with the rejection, and oddly enough am not the least bit offended by that aspect of the situation. What I take from this is that I am not viewed as 1) being competitive or 2) being a good fit for this job (or any of my other strike-outs.
DeleteWith that in mind I can either adjust my strategy/competitiveness next round or try for industry. I'm honestly not sure which I would choose, but I am leaning toward industry, but not necessarily because of how I think "they " will perceive my value. It has more to do with other life issues that I'll post about in a bit (and look for feedback on)....
And I do agree that this letter does speak volumes about the culture. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like it when I'm shown more respect.
I'm the last Anon - Interesting that you should say that about the letter ...I just had enough of being sent letters which appeared to be photocopied and I thought how could any group of people seriously consider people of having any value if they didn't have the decency of showing some respect so someone who'd put both time and thought into applying for a job at their institution. A photocopied and/or badly written letter that's addressed "Dear Candidate"...implies no respect. So, why bother dealing with this sector?? My other reason for leaving is that I'd alreay worked industry and the culture far healthier. Mind you I still write academic articles and attend conferences..I just have no wish to work in a sector that shows little or no respect to future employees.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I'm still not sure if bad letters are indicative of the sector or institution. And even then, I totally understand that individual responses are not feasible when 230 people apply for a single opening.
ReplyDeleteI would also make an argument that industry is not necessarily any better about notifying candidates of rejections. From my experience, the vast majority of industry applications result in no contact whatsoever. Is silence better than knowing to move on?
These rejection letters are indicative of *nothing*, and tell you nothing about you, your application, why you were rejected, the culture of the department that rejected you, the culture of the institution that rejected you, the personalities of the people who work there, or anything else. Most likely, the same boilerplate rejection letter has been in use for *years*, no one involved in the hiring decision-making process has any fucken clue what it says, and some departmental secretary was simply instructed to send rejection letters to a list of people.
ReplyDeleteYou are reading all kinds of crazy shit into something that is utterly completely fucken meaningless.