I also think that some kind of response is appropriate for all the reasons
that Gayle mentioned. Even a form letter is fine in most instances, but you
must be careful when you use one straight from the computer.
Not so long ago I interviewed for a job in a city far away from me. The
potential employer paid my travel expenses, and we had a lovely time during
the half day interview. Everything went nicely, and I returned home with a
good feeling. Of course that doesn't mean I was expecting an immediate offer
of employment. But I certainly didn't expect what I ended up getting. It
began as a very nicely worded, personalized, genuinely regretful rejection
letter. You see, I could tell it was a rejection letter because at the
bottom of the page was a line that looked something like this:
C:\SUMMER\CAND\INTRVW\REJECT.LTR. That file name pretty much negated the
nice feeling I had about the firm, and I was sorely tempted to bring it to
their attention. But I did not for whatever reason.
Anyway, my point is that form letters are fine, but they must be used with
care. You may never care about the person that gets a letter like I got, but
what about the person you would have liked to hire who got word of this
little faux pas, and decided against you for your apparent lack of attention
to detail and lack of consideration for people.
Have a good week!
Anne
>It is a simple procedure to set up a form rejection letter thanking the
>applicant for their interest and at the same time, indicate to them that you
>will keep their resume on file and if anything should open up for which they
>may be qualified, you will contact them at that time. As a person on the
>hunt for a new position, if I do not get even a form letter back, I am
>concerned that my resume never made it to the firm or company for which I
>was applying. Then, I wonder, should I call? Or wait to see if a letter
>comes in the mail tomorrow. No one wants to be that pushy, but then again,
>if you do not hear from the prospective employer, you never know if they
>even got your resume. This applies to any posting of the job offer, Net or
>Newspaper. When I was working as a solo, I always pumped out a form
>letter, even to unsolicited resumes. Yes, it is the courteous thing to do,
>but even more important, it lets the person on the other end know that the
>post office isn't eating their mail!!! I highly recommend a standard form
>letter in your word processor that takes but a moment to spit out for your
>signature. All IMNSHO <g>!
>
>Best,
>Gayle O'Connor, legal consultant, legal author, incoming SLA-Legal Division
>Chair, excellent wife, mother and bodybuilder bodybldr@cris.com
>
>
>
Anne M. Kirkhope (419) 530-2946
University of Toledo Law Library FAX: (419) 530-8485
2801 West Bancroft St. akirkho@uoft02.utoledo.edu
Toledo, OH 43606
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