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Monday, April 6, 2009

can you appeal a job rejection?

Every few weeks or so, I'm contacted by a job candidate who asks me to reconsider our rejection of his or her application. This almost never works -- actually, I want to say "never" but there's one very, very limited case in which it might be okay to do.

Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I write about why you generally can't appeal a job rejection, and the one time where you can. Please check it out here and leave your own thoughts in the comments over there.

3 comments:

carla said...

I never even thought of appealing a job rejection. I figured they had a specific reason, other candidates or didn’t like my shoes. Whatever the decision was based on, I assume it was final unless I’m second choice for later on down the line.

Anonymous said...

Even if someone did leave something relevant off a resume and their appeal of a job rejection is a good faith attempt to inquire whether it would have made a difference, the very situation reeks of desperation to me.

It's the job-hunting equivalent of leaving something at a date's place so you have an excuse to return.

The obvious point here is that jobseekers should be prepared to tout their candidacy while in the process, not be so disorganized that they stumble back later with an "Oh, I forgot to mention I'm also awesome because..."

Anonymous said...

I once had someone appeal a termination. After a single day we realized - oh, this is NOT going to work. Debatable? Maybe, but you are going to have to trust me on this. Anyway, the person then asked to speak to HR to see if it could be appealed, despite me being the direct manager. This did not end up well for them.