Job application rejection - email or phone?

[pastaandpesto]

Quick question.

I've been recruiting for a role at our company. We're very small, so no HR department or anything like that.

Had loads of applicants. Drew up a long list and did a telephone interview. Then did an in-person interview and ended up with two really amazing candidates. But we can only hire one, and so we went with the one that just had the edge. Would have happily hired the other person though, if the first person hadn't been in the picture.

My question - if you were the unsuccessful candidate, would you rather be told by email or by phone? In either case I will make it clear that we were really impressed with them. But I know it is still shit to hear that when you're the one that has missed out.

I hate this stuff.

I think I'll email but make sure it is personal and specific - definitely not just a generic "thank you but unfortunately on this occasion you we're not successful" blah blah,

Yes I agree, phone call if you are rejecting at final interview stage. I think that’s the most courteous and professional thing to do.

I’ve been on the giving and receiving end of this sort of phone call. When receiving a rejection I appreciated they’d bothered to call, email would have felt impersonal and rude to me.

Its not nice making the call but I’ve always felt I’ve owed it to the candidate to do it in person. I make notes of what I’m doing to say in advance and then say sorry you were unsuccessful straight away and offer to do feedback at a later time if they want it.

Ah the classic "tough sh!t" email :)

I agree, better to be by email... we're sorry, we will not be proceeding ahead with your application as there were more qualified candidates, or words to that effect.

A nicer ending would be adding a number should they have any questions... I personally really appreciate the follow-ups where they say they didn't think I had enough x, y, z experience as it gives me a starting point for self improvement.

It has to be tactfully phrased of course, and for this, actually better over the phone... there's a big difference between "you don't appear to be able to string together sentences"... and ... "Your cv contained a number of spelling and grammatical issues that to us indicated a lack of thoroughness we are looking for... I'd be happy to walk you through it quickly for professional development purposes"

I'll probably have the more experienced HR reps in here telling me that's a horrible idea lol.

Email

i know this is an old thread, but can I just say an email is far far kinder if you haven’t got the job.
I’m in the (soul destroying) process of job hunting. I’ve had 4 phone calls telling me I’ve been pipped at the post. Each time I thought (hoped) they’d be ringing to offer me the job, only to be told they’d chosen someone else. Awful.