Now That I Said That Other Thing… Can We Reject Better?

If you read my most recent post, you hopefully know that I am not here to bitch about rejection. Though I clearly think a lot about.

I guess I’m trying to get it out of my system so I can move on to other things. I don’t know if this is true, but someone once told me that the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel believed there was three different rejections one could receive when they sent a theater their newest writing. As a former playwright rejector, and a hirer in general, I tried to live by these words, which I will paraphrase in a moment.

 

I couldn’t help but take advantage of the situation to post a picture from a Paula Vogel play I had the privilege to direct, “And Baby Makes Seven” (Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Theater Festival, 2009.)

Why do I share this as a companion to my previous post(s)? Because, I am sadly seeing that the “real world” is no better at rejecting applicants than theaters are at rejecting actors and playwrights.

I offer a nifty solution, by way of Ms. Vogel by way of some friend I can’t remember by way of my own shaky memory as to what she said.

There are three messages you can receive from a rejection. Likewise, recruiters, there are three messages you can send. And they are equally useful for both sides. I’ll explain why in a minute.

1. Thanks for applying, but we decided you were not right for this job. Good luck in your future endeavors.
2. Thanks for applying, we liked you, but not for this position. Feel free to apply again in the future for a position that more closely matches your experience and skills.
3. Thanks for applying, we really liked you, and strongly considered you. Please stay in touch. You are welcome to reapply in the future for a similar position and can check in with us from time to time to update us on your newest experiences that might enhance your candidacy for this job.

Hopefully this is what you really read between the lines…

1. Nope. Not even close. Not worth your time right now to try again.
2. Not for this job. You’ve got promise, but you aren’t here yet. You are a good candidate in general though. Are you willing to drop down a level or can you find something better suited for your experience?
3. Not right now, but damn, you were close. We are actually serious about you. You should truly network with us and keep checking our job postings.

I read my rejection letters carefully, because I have been on the other side countless times. As an Artistic Director, you are in a constant state of hiring. Each show means hiring at least about twenty new people, multiple times a year, and of course, rejecting hundreds more. And because you have a tiny business, you are doing the outreach, the interviews, and the rejections personally yourself. So the stakes are not only high for your applicants, but they are high for you if your applicants get the wrong message. You don’t want to risk losing that good actor from applying the next time because they simply were bested by another good actor this time around. Likewise you don’t want to have to be constantly rejecting the same person every month when you post something new.

But also, it’s not fair to them. They need to understand where they stand, so they can focus their energies on building the right relationships with the right people. We make such a big deal about networking in this country, that it’s all about who we know, but then we seemingly, from my experience thus far in this new, larger pond of a job market, make little effort to clarify if we truly want our rejected applicant to do just that.

This lack of fairness impacts your brand and it impacts the quality of your applicants. Keep the quality people close, and you improve the odds they will bother the next time around. Show clear and focused responses that at least split your rejections into three piles, and your reputation rises. I was thanked countless times for my clarity and honesty.

But here’s the catch, the oh-so-important detail. Right now, I can’t even tell by the wording which ones mean it when they do say it. Because they all seem to say things like “you were a very strong candidate.” Am I just always a very strong candidate? I doubt that.

So the biggest trick up my sleeve, the one that is “100% Daniel Student Open Source” (i.e. I’m sure I got it from someone else, but it feels like it was an original thought so I’m going with that) and will set you over the top…

For a while, I actually started each email to people I rejected but truly wanted to stay in touch with me with a sentence like “What I’ve written below I don’t write to all candidates. Please take it personally as it is intended.”

Boom. That’s the million dollar idea. But I give it to you for free. And if I see it in one of my near future rejections, I will smile and celebrate the open sourcing of genuine clarity, and you and I will both happily connect six months later when I check in with what I accomplished in my final two quarters of graduate school, my recent consulting projects, etc. I look forward to it.