best/worst job rejection letters? Forum

[schooner]

Do law firms bother to notify you if you don't make the cut, or do they just stay silent like most employers today? Any interesting rejection letters to share? I saw this today --


http://www.washingtonpost.com/conversat ... ssion.html

My favorite job rejection letter was this. I was interviewing with law firms during my last year in law school. There was a complex process where you selected your top picks, and the firms selected their top picks, and the school arranged the interviews in some manner so that each student ended up interviewing with at least one of the firms in their top pick. I went to my interview, spend an hour or so talking with the firm representatives, and arrived home from my interview to find the rejection letter in my mailbox. They'd mailed me a rejection before interviewing me! It was hilarious; and what a great way to ensure I would have no regrets about not going to work for them.

[luthersloan]

My favorite rejection letter was an email from a firm, the subject line said “call-back interview”, the body contained a rejection. It was great build up, let down sort of feeling.

[timbs4339]

Do law firms bother to notify you if you don't make the cut, or do they just stay silent like most employers today? Any interesting rejection letters to share? I saw this today --


http://www.washingtonpost.com/conversat ... ssion.html

My favorite job rejection letter was this. I was interviewing with law firms during my last year in law school. There was a complex process where you selected your top picks, and the firms selected their top picks, and the school arranged the interviews in some manner so that each student ended up interviewing with at least one of the firms in their top pick. I went to my interview, spend an hour or so talking with the firm representatives, and arrived home from my interview to find the rejection letter in my mailbox. They'd mailed me a rejection before interviewing me! It was hilarious; and what a great way to ensure I would have no regrets about not going to work for them.

I know some firms actually put out the name of every member of the firm in the letterhead. Then the actual rejection letter is just a sentence or two. More space and ink is take up with the letter than the actual rejection.

[Cavalier]

Do law firms bother to notify you if you don't make the cut, or do they just stay silent like most employers today?

If you apply via snail mail or email you probably won't hear anything unless you get invited to an interview; firms are too swamped in applications to issue rejection notifications. But if you have an interview with a firm, you will almost certainly be notified if you are rejected. Sometimes the rejections take forever to come, but I recall only one major firm at UVA giving no notification at all.

Some firms (such as STB, if I'm not mistaken) are known for mailing rejections before screening interviews. I think it's kind of stupid move; does a firm really want to send the message that you literally did not stand a chance from the start?

[boaltrising3l]

I got a few rejection letters from firms I didn't interview (nor was I signed up to) with at last years OCIP. Guess they really wanted to get across the point that people from my school are not good enough and should not apply.

[Anonymous User]

Had a callback at a firm that was a good 6 hours away by flight. Rejection letter came the same day I landed back home.

[Anonymous User]

I still didn't have a job lined up at the end of the year. My last final was Wednesday, I was going to leave my LS town on Saturday for my home market (it's a multi-day trip) and take my chances there.

On Friday, I was all packed up, with everything I owned either in storage or my car. For some reason, I decided to follow up with a partner at a firm in my LS town that I had contacted earlier but never heard back from. The partner said that he'd accidentally deleted my original email before he could print out my resume, so he didn't know how to get in touch with me. But he remembered my credentials and we set up an interview for that evening. During the interview, I explained that if I didn't get the job, I would be going back to my home market to look for work. They said this was fine, that they wanted to make a hire ASAP anyway, and that they should be able to let me know something by close of business Monday.

After the interview, I went out to dinner, and by the time I got home, the partner had emailed me, said they really liked me and had narrowed it down to me and one other person, and asked what my salary requirements were. I emailed him back with a number (and hinted that it was negotiable).

I then began obsessively and compulsively checked my email every few minutes for the rest of the night, and again on Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday. Monday evening passed and I hadn't heard anything. Tuesday morning I emailed the partner to check in and began to constantly re-check my email. In the afternoon, I called him. I called again on Wednesday. On Thursday, I sent another email and called twice. On Friday, I called like six times.

Since everything was either packed in my car or in storage, I was literally living out of boxes for the week. I slept on the floor, had no TV or internet, and ate fast food every meal. Finally, late Friday evening, about 8 o'clock, the guy called me back and said "I got your message. Sorry about that, I guess I forgot to let you know. We hired one of your classmates."

[megamanx]

This was government, not firm so maybe it doesn't count. I received a phone message to give the agency a call back as soon as possible. After getting all pumped for a possible 1L gig they answered and rejected me over the phone with the usual rejection drivel you would receive in a letter. So awkward....

[robert85]

Had a callback at a firm that was a good 6 hours away by flight. Rejection letter came the same day I landed back home.

That's terrible. I traveled out of town for an interview (a good 4 hour drive), only to be told when I got there that they no longer had an opening (you would think that they could have told me that before I took time out of my schedule to come out and interview@#!)

[Anonymous User]

I received a rejection postcard, on which the entire world (or at least every single person at the US Post Office who handled it) saw that I was rejected. The postcard even read, "Asshat Law Firm does not have a position suited to your background and experience." In other words, "We're hiring - we're just not hiring someone as lowly as you. And we don't care if the world knows it."

[Anonymous User]

Sent a follow up email to a mass mail I sent out about a month ago. Hiring person replied by forwarding the rejection email they sent weeks ago with the body of the email saying only "for your review".

[Anonymous User]

I received a rejection postcard, on which the entire world (or at least every single person at the US Post Office who handled it) saw that I was rejected. The postcard even read, "Asshat Law Firm does not have a position suited to your background and experience." In other words, "We're hiring - we're just not hiring someone as lowly as you. And we don't care if the world knows it."

Awesome.

[Anonymous User]

Rejection letter starting with "It was our privilege to review your application."

[Anonymous User]

--LinkRemoved--

[Anonymous User]

Thank you for your application.
"Firm" has not had an office in Washington, D.C. for several years.
Good luck with your search.

[Anonymous User]

Dear [Applicant].

Then an hour later they sent me the same email with my regular name. No apology, no anything. Just tried to play it off. Fuck those assholes.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[Anonymous User]

There was one where the firm sent a generic rejection letter to multiple people. Unfortunately, all those people's emails were put in the "To:" line.

[Anonymous User]

Got one where the firm called me "Mr." instead of "Ms." when my name is clearly a female one.

[kalvano]

Getting a rejection letter in the mail was fun. Getting the same rejection letter sent certified mail, return receipt requested was even more fun.

[Anonymous User]

Cravath's ding email was pretty nice.

[Anonymous User]

There was one where the firm sent a generic rejection letter to multiple people. Unfortunately, all those people's emails were put in the "To:" line.

This happened with Oppenheimer Funds this year. Sent it to about 100 people.

[Anonymous User]

Applied for a Summer Associate job and got a rejection saying they don't hire 1Ls. The first line of my cover letter said I was a second year law student.

[Gorki]

Firm had openings for a law clerk and an attorney. I mail in explicitly noting that I am applying to be their law clerk. Response letter says something to the effect of "We appreciate your interest, but only licensed attorney's were considered for this associate position. We will consider you in future opportunities." Of course there was no future response. I got my current job a few days later, but otherwise I woulda had to find the best way to e-mail back and explain I was clearly not applying to be an associate when I was a fucking 2L.

[Anonymous User]

Best is from Gibson Dunn, worst is from Bingham McCutchen so far.

Grades are well below median, no significant work experience, so pretty much out for both to begin with. Thought I'd be more of a crapshoot at Gibson, but got the Bingham rejection first before the OCI week was even over.

The Gibson letter at least tried to insert a line about my resume to show they paid attention. They basically said "We especially enjoyed talking about your experience at Y firm, and encourage you to apply again next fall when we interview 3L's"

My beef with the Bingham letter has more to do with how sacchrine they were with the compliments. They basically said "You have great/impressive credentials and we're sure you'll be a very successful lawyer." If they were so sure, they would have at least considered me longer than the 1-2 days it took >_>...