Was going to say the same. I’ve only ever been rejected over email (or ghosted entirely). I would also find it off-putting to get a phone call rejection. I guess organizations can choose to call if they wanted, but I wouldn’t personally encourage it.
What we did at RP Longtermism’s most recent hiring rounds (not sure if it’s applicable to other departments/teams) is send rejections via email and offer rejected final round candidates a chance to call with someone on the team if they wanted to. This lets candidates opt in to talk more with team members if and only if they wanted to, and also do so at their own pace so they’re emotionally ready to call when ready.
I don’t have statistics off the top of my head, but I want to say more than half. I think people were positive about it, but it’s hard to get accurate takes when there are such strong incentives for people to just generally seem positive here, so I wouldn’t take the positive sentiment there too seriously.
Phone calls for me are socially awkward and I generally want some time to privately process rejection rather than immediately need to have a conversation about it. Also I generally keep my phone at home during business hours so it’s quite likely I’d need to spend half an hour playing phone tag.
You call, greet the person, say in the first sentence that you won’t be making an offer, say a few more short sentences, react to any responses, then hang up. You don’t make it a conversation. The important thing is that they hear your voice.
It’s fine to speak on voicemail and for the other person not to call back. This avoids phone tag.
Note that Manager Tools doesn’t always have to most airtight arguments, but they tend to have tested their core guidance (which includes hiring) empirically.
Was going to say the same. I’ve only ever been rejected over email (or ghosted entirely). I would also find it off-putting to get a phone call rejection. I guess organizations can choose to call if they wanted, but I wouldn’t personally encourage it.
What we did at RP Longtermism’s most recent hiring rounds (not sure if it’s applicable to other departments/teams) is send rejections via email and offer rejected final round candidates a chance to call with someone on the team if they wanted to. This lets candidates opt in to talk more with team members if and only if they wanted to, and also do so at their own pace so they’re emotionally ready to call when ready.
What share of people took you up on that?/Did anyone comment on the offer?
I don’t have statistics off the top of my head, but I want to say more than half. I think people were positive about it, but it’s hard to get accurate takes when there are such strong incentives for people to just generally seem positive here, so I wouldn’t take the positive sentiment there too seriously.
I see. Thanks!
What would you find off-putting about it?
Phone calls for me are socially awkward and I generally want some time to privately process rejection rather than immediately need to have a conversation about it. Also I generally keep my phone at home during business hours so it’s quite likely I’d need to spend half an hour playing phone tag.
Good to know, thanks!
For completeness, my idea of a rejection phone call (derived from https://www.manager-tools.com/2014/11/how-turn-down-job-candidate-part-1) is:
You call, greet the person, say in the first sentence that you won’t be making an offer, say a few more short sentences, react to any responses, then hang up. You don’t make it a conversation. The important thing is that they hear your voice.
It’s fine to speak on voicemail and for the other person not to call back. This avoids phone tag.
Note that Manager Tools doesn’t always have to most airtight arguments, but they tend to have tested their core guidance (which includes hiring) empirically.