There is something so anonymous about online job hunting, that I really appreciate this rejection I received from Scripps Corporation. The personalized care with which they rejected me, makes me think they understand I created a resume and cover letter exclusively for them. I did, and my reward is a sweet and extremely informal rejection email, that takes a terse and firm twist in the middle - but flattens back out to sweetness in the closure.
If you have been following the blog, you know I vacillate between landing one of my dream jobs, and just landing a job to get a paycheck. I now feel like my creative soul and my corporate one are on some Amazing Race to see who finishes first to land me a paycheck. It's a series of hills and valleys and gut-wretching challenges.
One of my dream jobs would to be to host my own cooking show on the Food Network. My idea is called Pantry Possibilities, but I am available for other shows too. I applied to a few jobs on the Scripps Corporate website, as Scripps owns the Food Network, home to such stars as Rachael Ray, Alton Brown and Bobby Flay, in order to start from the ground up.
I remember this particular job listing was for a type of Production Assistant job (they called it something fancier). I stretched all my culinary skills as far as I could towards the posted job description. I mean - to chop onions for Ina Garten, my real Food Network hero, would be an honor.
Clearly they were thinking about me for a long time as a match for this job, because I submitted an application for "Kitchen Steward" (another fancy title - this one for dish washer) on the same day. For Kitchen Steward, they rejected me straight away, and not nearly as nicely as in this one.
You will notice, in today's rejection email, they use my first name, like we are already friends, and tell me to not take this rejection - done electronically - personally. That is really sweet, but nothing about my interaction with Scripps has been personal. So maybe is it overly sweet, for a company I have only encountered online. But it is a well thought out rejection, and it indeed has a pleasant tone. Proving it is easier to be sweet and firm from a distance.
They thank me for my interest, let me know it has been difficult for them, that we just aren't a good match, and warns me that I am NOT being further considered for this job.
The email is well received by me. I forgot I even applied for this job, and it makes me feel busier then I thought I was. I don't want to be oversensitive with my pride - but I understood the content before I opened it. I understood when I received the email with the subject line "Thank you for your interest". So on that end, I think the "you will not be considered further for this particular opportunity" is a little excessive, but maybe they have had problems getting through to people with their rebuffs in the past.
The personal salution is touching. I mean - read it:
Dear Julie,
Thank you for your interest in employment with Scripps Networks Interactive, and the position of Food Styling Coordinator II; requisition #1353. The selection of candidates requires difficult decisions and at this point it has been determined that your background is not a match for the specific requirements for this position. Accordingly you will not be considered further for this particular opportunity. Please do not consider it a poor reflection on you; rather, it is an indication that another candidate has skills that better fit the role.
We encourage you to periodically review the list of available job opportunities provided on our web site and follow the application process described. Thank you again and best of luck with your career search.
Sincerely,
Scripps Networks Interactive Recruiting Team
I have had less civil break ups with men I have dated. And I am glad they let me know it's them, and not me with the phrase "Please do not consider it a poor reflection on you". I was wondering how I reflected, and now I know, it's not poorly.
At first I thought the Scripps Network Interactive Recruiting Team didn't understand that during the last 2 months of this job search I have had to develop skin thicker than a Biggest Loser contestant. I am directly and indirectly rejected each day. This is the nicest direct rejection I have received so far. And from a place where I haven't even spoke to someone on the phone.
I usually find when I am doing follow up calls, people find the intrusion of personal contact threatening. Everything is pretty in cyberspace, but don't put yourself in front of me. Like the floral designer yesterday, who guarded the hiring managers name at Freytag's Florist like it was a formula to Coke Classic. I wasn't trying to harass him. The job posting said phone calls where okay.
So - this electronic rejection is really sweet. And I am going to let it make my day. I am not going to worry that as a society, people want less and less to do with each other.
Someone at Scripps in HR understands the level of rejection involved in a job search more than I realize, and I appreciate it. He/She is just trying to make the world a kinder, gentler and more civilized place, one rejection email at a time.
That are probably mail merged in some way and sent out a thousand in one shot.
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