I saw an interview with high school senior Suzy Lee Weiss last week about the letter she wrote in to the Wall Street Journal entitled “To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me.” It inspired me to write a letter of my own. If anyone would like to submit it to the Wall Street Journal or tell the Today Show about it so I can be on TV please be my guest : )
To the companies that chose not to hire (rejected) me:
I hope this letter finds you thriving despite not having hired me. No hard feelings. I do not consider myself to be entitled to a job anywhere; it’s up to you whether I am a good fit for your institution. I still have the highest respect for you. And because of this I just have some suggestions and comments for you. Take them or leave them, but I only have your best interests in mind, similar to what you were probably thinking about me when you decided not to hire me………….
First, you have very high standards. And I completely understand that, don’t take it personally. I myself have very high standards in terms of where I apply to jobs, where I get my haircut, boys I consider dating material (Justin Timberlake or Gerard Butler or Guillaume Canet), what kinds of beer I drink (Leinenkugel Berry Weiss anyone?) etc. Maybe all of us can learn something here—nobody is perfect. I might not have the 24.5+ years of experience you are searching for in an entry-level candidate or the five degrees you would PREFER for me to have, but (among so many other wonderful things) I’m passionate. Doesn’t that count for anything anymore? And I’m pretty smart. Is everyone you hire just a genius? Where do those people come from? What I’m trying to say is of course you don’t want to compromise by hiring someone who only meets a few criteria, however, let’s diminish those criteria just a little.
Another thing is that I am very aware of the corporate policies and steps that go into the interview and hiring process. There seems to be about 376 steps for every company to follow on the road to hiring the perfect person, and this drives us candidates (me) crazy. I have spent many weeks waiting to hear back about positions, jumping at any phone call and having a mini panic attack at every e-mail received. After weeks of this kind of anxiety, my mental state is exhausted. Could you just tell me the very INSTANT you know you don’t want to hire me? Even if you just see me walking in your door and know I’m not the one simply because I’m just so short and you can’t take me seriously, just tell me to leave. It will save me some emotional turmoil. That’s a giant exaggeration and that would never happen I’m SURE but do you get it?
So, the economy. Am I right? It’s just so awful. I know it concerns you and is preventing you from hiring entry level people or just people in general. I encourage you to ignore it. Just because I really want to work, and I’m sure if I personally were more involved in the economy it would just skyrocket up.
Lastly, I’m still looking for a job. So if you have any positions available, I would love to be considered.
Sincerely,
Missy
À la missy 
Missy, a friend has shared your blog’s entry and I’ve just read it. I don’t know where have you applied, in which way, what is the situation of the place you are, etc. but I read your LinkedIn profile and I think you have potential and the good attitude. Therefore, don’t despair! If you really desire some kinds of job and you work to get them, one day you will achieve your goal.
I’m engineer and I haven’t a deep knowledge of bussiness mangement, international relations, human resources, finances, accountancy or marketing. However, I’ve advanced very fast in related hiring processes (within big companies). Maybe you don’t need or you wouldn’t like the following advices, but I write them in order to help you:
1) Sell yourself! Sell yourself as you see yourself in dreams and support with your experience and knowledge.
2) If you publish you are unemployed, searching job, looking for interviews, etc., recruitment personal may imagine you are desperate and anybody would like hire you also. Take care with your blog and the links to it, because it might not improve your candidature. A blog that reports your fields of interest, your knowledge, etc. works better.
3) The “white spaces” in your resume might decline your candidature. If you can, try to fill them wiht other alternatives while you are searching for an interesting job. For example, take courses or try to work for a startup. Regarding to startup companies, believe me, they search good international marketing professionals!
Regards.
Hi Daniel!
I appreciate your suggestions, and thanks for reading! I’m happy to hear you have been successful in your interviews. Your advice is definitely helpful and adds to everything that I have been learning the past year about finding a job–so thanks : ) Regarding the content of my blog, I understand what you are saying about paying close attention to what I post. And that is something I am very careful to do. I personally believe that everything I have written is just an honest story about the situation I am in as a person looking for work. My intention isn’t to sound desperate for companies to hire me. I simply wanted to write about the job search process from a satirical and fun point of view. Obviously anyone can read something that is published on the internet and I am very aware of that when I write things in my blog. That’s why if any hiring person came across this blog I would not be afraid of them seeing what I wrote. Again, it’s just a fun and relevant topic to me personally. Thanks again for reading and for the great job search suggestions!
Hi Missy!
As I said on the previous comment, I supposed you aren’t desperate and you know how to do the things. Nevertheless, I saw more entries related to the topic and I don’t know you personally, then I decided to write with this approach. For example, in Spain, there are people who are really demotivated due to unsuccessful hiring processes or lack of job chances. I noticed your satirical writing skills, but I couldn’t determine what is your walking direction and how far are you from the line that separates both states.
About your satirical writing skills, they made me smile: “the hiring games”, “24.5+ years of experience for an entry-level candidate”, “about 376 steps to follow on the road to hiring the perfect person” (at least one step per day!), etc. I agree, it sometimes becomes illogical or the waste of a precious time.
To add one more to your histories, recently I had an incident with a company. It was the second phase of the hiring process, a group dynamic. It was done in a skyscraper on the center of the city and due to external circumstances I arrived 5 minutes late. The reception service of the skyscraper notified my arrival to the company and then they said me “wait on the waiting room, it is there…”. So I started to wait… 30 minutes (“ok, maybe they are doing interviews before the dynamic”), … 1 hour (“patience, if they are 4 or 5, each candidate deserve 20-30 minutes of interview”), … 90 minutes (“it’s very strange, it’s going to be lunch time”), … finally, I came again to the reception service and I asked what had been happened. Surprise! They forgot me!! Incredible… Even today, it’s hard for me to believe in the possibility of this incident! The end of the story was fortunately happy… they summoned me for another dynamic at afternoon, but I lost half day.
Good luck in your job search!
Dear Missy,
This is one of the best blogs I have ever read.
Sincerely,
Anonymous