More Rejection Letter Excerpts
"I am sorry to tell you that we have decided on another candidate for the position of assistant professor. We were very fortunate in having a remarkable number of excellent candidates like your self to choose from. Our final decision depended on the best fit between the candidate and the requirements and needs of our department.
I and the other members of our Search Committee wish you the best in your search for a position and success in your career."
This one seemed especially odd, since it almost reads like I went for an interview and they had it down to me and one other person!
"The Search Committee based its selection on complementarity of the applicant's research interests and strengths with those of our present faculty. We received a very large number of high quality applications for the position. We were all impressed with your research progress and with your plans for the future, but we have decided not to pursue your application further."
This one seems to suggest at least two things. (1) They already knew who they wanted when they advertised the position. (2) They were 'impressed' with me but think I'm too young (translation: need at least 6 years of postdoc experience).
And there were two more this week, both very generic "We regret to inform you that you were not among those selected for interview." (As if, it being April already, I hadn't figured that out by now).
posted by Ms.PhD @ 2:51 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
The fact that you got a reject in April suggests that you were on the list of potential interview candidates but not high enough (top 3 to 5) to get an interview. If you weren't on the potential interview list, you would have gotten the rejection letter in December or January when the search committee worked up the list and got approval from the faculty, chair and dean to bring in candidates. They kept your application "alive" until the canidate they made the offer to accepted. I don't think that you can infer anything personal from the wording of the letter. I'd bet that the same one went to the other applicants with no change in wording.
Thanks for the optimistic outlook! I'm trying to forget a phrase I heard on the Food Network hunt for the next star (I didn't vote because I liked Reggie and Guy equally and would have liked to see them both get shows, I'm so sick of Rachel Ray being on 24/7). Guy said something like "The runner-up is just the first loser" on a clip they played over and over on the commercials... Making it into the top 10 is good, I will try to focus on that and hope that I don't have that much farther to go to make the really-short list. I just don't know if that's really true or if they just didn't get around the sending the rejection letters until now.
If you really want to find out what happened in the search, call the department chair. Or the search committee chair if there was a name in the ad. Don't ask for names or details, but 'what did you think of my application?' is a perfectly valid question to ask. Don't take it personal; it isn't. What did Ugarte say? "You despise me, don't you? " and then Rick says "If I gave you any thought I probably would." It's that but schlubs.
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