In the past week I've received three rejections from positions I applied to last year.
I wonder what the story is, precisely, in why these were this late. I know one of these jobs was one of the first ones due, so there's a good chance that I received my rejection almost exactly a year after I applied. None of these searches were canceled, and I've known for a long time I didn't get these jobs thanks to the wiki. Furthermore, I had forgotten all about them--to be honest--since I took a job somewhere else.
Back when I did corporate contracts many times I'd have an interview and never hear anything from the company. It might not be polite, but at least it was somewhat normal. I once got a job offer two years after I applied and interviewed (that was weird), but in general there was a window of a few months after which it was safe to assume you didn't get the job.
But no matter--when it's been this long, would you rather hear about a job, or just never hear from the school again? And does a late rejection change your perception about the professionalism of the program more or less than never hearing?
As someone who is sometimes very slow with thank you notes and the like, I'm hardly one to throw stones, but I think after a certain point it seems sillier to write than just let it drop.
ReplyDeleteIf a school has interviewed someone -- at a convention, via Skype, and especially during an on-campus visit -- I feel much more strongly that they ought to let that person know as soon as (s)he is definitely out of the running. I do think less of programs that can't get their acts together to send a line or two (by email or snail mail) bearing that news. For an application that never goes beyond the first stage, the EEOC form (or some similar acknowledgment that the application was received) followed by silence doesn't really bother me.
I rather feel that in this age of increasing faceless interaction -- emails and such -- there comes a time when politeness expires. If it's been 12 months, we assume we did not get the job.
ReplyDeleteJust today I checked my mailbox to receive 2 letters of rejection of last year's fellowship prize. Since those fellowships began 3 weeks ago, I naturally assumed I had not won them.
It feels like salt in the wound! Just leave it after a certain time. Like one month after the position has been filled, unless you are hoping that a waitlister will receive the benefits of a cancellation.
It may be the norm not to inform of rejections, but the amount of effort we are talking about here is literally along the lines of copy/paste/send. WTF is wrong with the world that affording even this token level of respect isn't deemed worthy of the time it takes?
ReplyDeleteI'd rather get it late than not at all.
That's just adding insult... OBVIOUSLY, you weren't still expecting the job, nor should they have been expecting you to accept the job if it were still open. I got a letter once from the HR office telling me I hadn't gotten the job but it was THEIR job to inform everyone at the end of every fiscal year (for legal reasons). I know of no such legal reasons, but I thought it was a good way for them to waste money on paper and postage (and to fund a student worker's tuition).
ReplyDeletePerhaps I brought out the scorn in search committees but two of the four departments that interviewed me many years ago failed to send ding letters. One was my karma as I went into the interview 90% certain I wouldn't accept an offer. The other, involving a not overly prestigious R1 with a vicious schism, was an interview so horrible and outrageous that most who hear the story think I'm blowing smoke up their ass. (For example, at a restaurant the chair flirted aggressively with a colleague's wife he was banging and the three got into a loud drunken argument and drinks were flung.) Fortunately, I had an offer in my pocket from a department who treated me well (and still does) before going there so I really didn't give a shit that half of the department as one guy told me "had their knives sharpened for [me]." My getting the hell out of there, not sending a thank-you letter, and not hearing a word was much preferred to getting rejected by that cabal of lunatics.
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