Jobseeker uses AI to apply, rejection email wins hearts online - 'Generous'

Published 9 June 2026 · tech

‘Thanks for taking the time to apply. Unfortunately, we have decided to…’ – This is how most rejection mails begin. Jobseekers see ‘unfortunately’ and they

‘Thanks for taking the time to apply. Unfortunately, we have decided to…’ – This is how most rejection mails begin. Jobseekers see ‘unfortunately’ and they know what is coming next. But there is one rejection mail which is earning lots of praises on the social media, with some even calling it “rejection”. The mail definitely began the same way, but went on to list why the candidate was rejected, instead of just going with “we are not moving forward” and so on. The recruiter said in the mail that they found the cover letter very AI-generated since the candidate was asked to write just three sentences and he ended up writing four paras on his “holistic approach to software craftmanship.” The company also highlighted that the company name was misspelt twice in the same paragraph, despite the candidate boasting about his “attention to detail”.

The recruiters then go on to offer the candidate another chance, provided he wrote something, read it carefully, and sent it back for review. Here's the rejection mail that's now going viral Thanks for taking the time to apply. We're not moving forward, but I want to be specific about why because generic rejections are useless and you deserve better than "we decided to pursue other candidates." Three things flagged during review 1. The cover letter read as Al-generated. We asked for 3 sentences about a hard bug you fixed. We got four paragraphs about your "holistic approach to software craftsmanship." I stopped reading after "I'm thrilled to bring my innovative mindset to your cutting-edge team." 2. The take-home submission used temp1, temp2, temp3 as variable names with no comments and no tests.

The logic worked, but if this is your best-foot-forward code, it raises questions about production work. 3. Our company name was misspelled as "Limeston Digital twice, same paragraph - in a cover letter that listed "attention to detail" as a core strength. None of this is unfixable. If you reapply with something that shows you wrote it and read it before sending, we'll review it again. No cooldown period, no hard feelings. The email which has now gone viral on social media is also winning hearts online with people praising it for the feedback instead of a usual ‘unfortunately…’ “This is brilliant and generous. Feedback is (usually) a gift,” one said. Another social media user said, “Genuine feedback can help improve a lot, nowadays it's just like throwing punches in the thin air.” Also Read | As unemployment soars, job seekers turn to dating apps to find work “I think most candidates would prefer an honest rejection with specific feedback over a generic rejection with no context.