Rejection is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
This fall, I applied for some 15 faculty openings in chemistry departments around the country. The number is, I think, perhaps on the higher side, but still fairly typical–to give you some idea, one professor I know claimed to have given 12 interviews when he applied for positions. I had a number of reasons to apply, and knew my odds were slim this hiring cycle as well.
What’s interesting as the rejection letters arrive these days is how the rejection is written. There are obviously polite and less polite ways to tell someone they didn’t get the job.
Considering that many openings in chemistry will draw 200-300 applications, I’m impressed greatly by the letter with the handwritten, genuine ink signature. I’m not impressed by the letter that misspells my name nor am I impressed by another with clear grammatical errors.
If it’s clearly important for me to carefully proofread my cover letters, proposals, and résumés as a sign that I take myself seriously and care about how I present myself, what does it say about a department and a professor who doesn’t bother to proofread a rejection letter sent out to several hundred people who wanted strongly to join that department?
I don’t regret the time I spent in the application process one bit. I’ve learned a lot about academia and particular departments in the process–and not just from the questions I had to answer. If a department values faculty members highly, shouldn’t they also value applicants?
One Response
Comments
Subscribe to comments on this post via RSS or TrackBack
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Geoff — 4 years, 7 months ago.
A quick followup several months later….
I’ll be applying for faculty positions again this fall. I’m extremely happy that I applied last year because it will be much easier this time around. But I was completely surprised when I received a rejection letter in the mail a few days ago.
That’s correct. A department contacted me 10 months after I applied to inform me that I would not be interviewed. More surprising, I flipped through my list of applications and realized a few departments never sent rejection letters.
If anyone actually reads this, I think there’s a strong take-home message. Applicants are your future colleagues — maybe in your department, maybe not. The way you treat applicants, however, speaks volumes about you and your department. No one expects a personal letter to each of 200-300 applicants. Yet isn’t it important to take a few minutes to make sure that you leave each person with a good impression of your department?
Just my $0.02.