A hiring manager's mass email went a little overboard

I thought I would share this. The hiring guy from a company that was hiring writers, sent out this mass email to those who were not selected with the reasons why. He gave them a list of general feedback. I admired that he responded and gave good suggestions, that is more than some companies do, he just should have handled it a little better.

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/30/sorry_gawker_my_42_point_plan_helped_job_seekers/

http://gawker.com/5896584/heres-how-to-condescend-to-900-job-applicants-with-a-3000+word-rejection-letter

Well I have to agree, if condensed it could be helpful to applicants for a do/don't application response. But it was exactly what he didn't want to receive , a novella. It was condescending.

He made some good points, but he didn't say anything unique. And, he used a cuss word and "keyboard graphics". Isn't a rejection statement or letter supposed to be professional, regardless of the business it's coming from? To bottom line it, since he felt that what he had to say was so important, he could have posted his rejection novela (good word, MaryKay!) to a blog, and his response to the comments in another post.

Mary Kay and Tiredlady, you two were spot on. Mary Kay, I loved your comment about novella.

He illustrates to applicants what not to do but yet does not follow his own advice. He had shown a lack of respect to 900+ applicants.

He was clearly drunk on his own power and ran with it. Clearly by his overuse of "I".

Using "she" in reference to a writer that he thought was not good enough was discriminatory.

He had turned down people who wrote from established platforms such as CNN to choose people who he knew from blogs he visited. Way to insult people who he deemed over-qualified. He said don't impress him with writing links to those venues.

We are seeing the mental process behind the problem of why we are not getting hired and it not all on us.

I do give him a little credit because the hiring process is turning so mechanized that it will be the norm that we will get no responses or feedback at all.

Well, I kind of liked his whole response. I can imagine what some employers have to go thru when they advertise for a new position in their company. 900+ resumes...wow!...I wouldn't want to be that person who has to go thru them all. May have sounded a little arrogant but at least he responded and attempted to give out some good advice...that's more than what most of us receive. I wish every company I interviewed with, would come back with some response like that. I hate being left in the dark; I may not like their response, but I would be grateful that I heard why I wasn't hired.

Years ago, I did the hiring for a dept that I managed, and it was right around the time another a big corporation in town was downsizing. The resumes I got from experienced "Engineers" who were applying for a Customer Service Rep position, sickened me. I felt horrible for these people, but I knew they were applying out of desperation, and if I had hired them, I knew they would be gone in a snap, once they found something else in their field. What did I do with those resumes???? Stuck them in that round file under my desk...and now I am getting back everything I deserve. Sometimes you have to be on the receiving end to learn a good lesson in life.

I wouldn't want bad karma on anyone but there should be a level of professionalism between both parties in hiring.

It was also not cool for someone to disrespect him so much to have posted his email on gawker.com.

This proves that it is in the best interest of a company to treat applicants with respect. He may have sank his company even before it had gotten started.

If there is no etiquette and ethics in business, this kind of behavior will continue.

I was immediately turned off when he thew in the gender crap. He said; "she would not be the kind of person, ect." A true give away to his mindset. As a hiring manager he should have said that they would not be the kind of person, or something that would include both sexes. Just my two cents. But, it was an interesting read to a applicant that is looking for a writing position.

Thanks, need_a_break, and I agree with both you and disgustedwithgovt. When you work for a company, regardless of your job there you represent that company, and you have to be very careful when you put something out there about the company. Especially these days.