How to Make Rejection Emails Suck Less

(And why it matters)

5 min. read

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash.

“Thank you for your interest in our company. Unfortunately,...” 

You can fill in the rest.

No one likes too many “unfortunatelys” coming to roost in their inbox. 

People don’t enjoy getting rejected. And most people don’t enjoy delivering bad news, which is why so many rejection emails are terrible. 

Since writing them is so uncomfortable, recruiters often revert to a canned response from a template. But of course, the more canned the response, the worse it lands with the candidate. 

Are you seeing the circle of pain here? 

Let’s talk about how to make rejection emails suck a little less.

Why you need to write better rejection emails

You could make the argument that spending time on rejection emails is wasteful. It’s all about telling someone (nicely) to hit the road, right?

Not really. There’s two main reasons to try harder.

First, your reputation. 

The hiring process is tough on job searchers. Not wanting to cause undue pain to people who spent time and energy on the application, the test assignments, the interviews and whatever else is one compelling argument for more thoughtful rejection emails.

If you tend to steamroll job seekers, word gets around. A couple of bad reviews on Glassdoor is all it takes for a stellar applicant to write you off.

But there are more indirect benefits to investing time in a thoughtful rejection email. 

Which brings us to reason number two: relationship-building.

Your hiring process is an extension of your inbound marketing strategy. It's a long game. 

Just like most people reading your blog or downloading a case study, the majority of past job candidates will never become customers. But some might. 

If someone was a fan of your brand before they applied and got rejected, it makes complete sense to keep them in your audience. These people will go on to other jobs, maybe with a target client of yours.

Sure, maybe they weren’t a good fit for a position and you need to tell them that, but you also need to convince them that you’re not rejecting their attention to your content.

You want past applicants to continue reading your blog, talking about your services to colleagues and sharing your stuff on social.

In other words, it’s smart to be nice. 

Goals of a rejection email (“What are we trying to do here?”)

To be clear, even the most thoughtful rejection email won’t stop someone from feeling upset. Rejection is always going to be deeply unpleasant for the human on the other end. 

Your goal is not to try to take away someone’s bad feelings, but to acknowledge them, extend goodwill and retain them as a member of your audience.  

You want rejected candidates to be sad not because they feel mistreated and think you’re an asshole, but because you’re awesome and treat people well, and gosh darn it, what a shame they’re not the ones who’ll be working with you. 

And above all, you want them to continue engaging with your brand. They already work in or are interested in your industry, which means their attention is valuable, even if they stay at the top of the funnel.

Signs of a bad rejection email

Most rejection emails are the type that’s easy to write. 

No thought is given to branding, the language is not careful and there's only one goal in mind: to reject an unfit applicant. 

Create one template. Plug in a recipient list. Whoosh! Sent. 

An opportunity to build a relationship with a member of your community? Missed.

When creating a rejection email, check for these common signs of douchebaggery.

A no-reply address

It usually goes like this: 

The candidate talks to a recruiter who does the prelim interviews and takes care of scheduling. Then this person drops out of their inbox. A few days later the candidate receives a cordial and cold rejection email from an unattended address.

“But wait a minute, Kenneth, I thought we were friends?!” 

It seems Kenneth does not care. But most likely Kenneth simply doesn't like to give people bad news. He could be a coward. Or have some childhood trauma about avoiding conflict. Or his company has some ancient hiring practices and hasn’t made updating them a priority.

Whatever the reason, this tactic makes the candidate feel used. They spent time building a relationship with someone. And then your recruiter pulled a Tinder and ghosted them. 

Sending an email from a no-reply address can be fine if the candidates aren’t getting an interview, but doing that to someone further in the hiring process makes your brand look untrustworthy. 

Zero personalization 

No one expects you to write out hundreds of personalized emails. But an email from a template doesn’t have to sound canned. 

Invest time in writing out a thoughtful email template for each stage of the interview process (examples below). Better yet, get a professional copywriter to do it for you. 

Includes obnoxious formalities

We were telling each other “Hey” in emails this whole time and now it’s “Hello” and “Dear”. 

Hmm… 

“Consistency is key,” the cliché goes. Switching tones on someone just because they didn’t get a job violates that premise in a pretty big way. 

When you inject your rejection email with cold legalese, you create an artificial distance between you and the applicant. You should be inviting them into your community instead.

Makes off-hand promises 

This is probably not the worst offense, but it ticks me off. There’s nothing more annoying than an empty gesture. 

“We’ll be sure to reach out if a position that’s a better fit for your skills becomes available.” 

If someone applied for entry level DevOps engineer and got rejected, it’s not like they will suddenly qualify to do your client outreach, will they?

The most you can promise is more openings in the future and encourage people to keep up with you.

Is untimely

Applicants who didn’t make the first round of interviews shouldn’t have to wait until you draft a job offer to hear from you. It's cruel and feels like a strange power move, even when not intended that way. Fewer companies are doing this nowadays (yay!) because applicants are no longer shy about calling out them out.

How to write better rejection emails

Remember, aside from telling applicants they didn't make the cut, the goal of a rejection email is to retain people in your audience.

So all good practices of digital marketing apply.

Personalize your templates

If the candidate has been communicating with Kenneth the Recruiter the whole time, the rejection email should come from Ken. 

They don't need to write it or worry about logistics, but they should have a chance to provide input on language and have a variety of templates to choose from for each stage in the interview process. Use the candidate’s name and make sure the language matches the conversations you’ve had.

Stick with your brand voice

Speaking of language… Write in the same tone you did before you decided the candidate wasn't a fit. If that was conversational and friendly, then your rejection email should be equally amicable. 

Add a “thank you” section

Applying for jobs is hard and acknowledging that effort and the fact that you’re delivering unhappy news helps establish trust.

Give feedback to final candidates 

That’s usually two or three people who invest a ton of time in the interview process and deserve some transparency around your decision. 

You don’t need to talk about other candidates, but you can say what moved the needle in a different direction. 

Example:

“This role truly works best when the candidate has some chops in technical SEO, and a few of the other people we spoke to were more experienced.” 

If you want to take it up a notch and happen to have a relevant resource to help candidates skill up, include a link to a piece of content on your website. It's an excellent way to both be helpful and get more eyeballs on your blog. 

Guide them to the next steps

If rejected candidates liked and shared your content before they applied, they're a part of your audience. In a digital world your conversation with your audience is never over. Give them a CTA.

Encourage them to keep following you on LinkedIn and invite them to read your blog. Show them that you still care about them as a person in your industry, even if they're not the right fit for your team. 

Here are a few examples of rejection emails that do all of these things.

Early stage (no interview)

Final stage (last round of interviews)

Notice that the preview line is missing. I think they’re not necessary for rejection emails. The best rejection emails come from a real person on your team and most people don’t write preview lines for daily communication. If the rest of your email is well-written, the preview that shows up should be appropriate. 

I hope you get to use some of these tips to write more helpful, smarter rejection emails.