Students' job rejection emails are being turned into ‘love letters’ by a company which hopes to take the negativity out of job hunting.
"You'll be much happier without us" and "You are quite simply too awesome for our organisation" are just some of the responses students have received in response to their job rejection emails.
The letters are being sent by career management app Huzzle following a suggestion from a student at University College London (UCL). And since launching in March this year, Huzzle said they have already sent hundreds of letters to North East students.
Read more: Cat had to have leg amputated after being 'caught in illegal animal trap' in Gateshead
Yasin Kheradmand, who has been responsible for writing the letters, said: "The whole idea was to spread love not rejection and to make it personal because each student is unique and the letter they receive should be too."
A letter addressed to a candidate named James is just one example of the many personally written emails sent by Huzzle, who hope their app will help to guide people through their career. The letter reads: "Dear James, Thank you for your interest in our internship position.
"We have reviewed your application and unfortunately, we have realised that you are far too good for our organisation as you are an independent thinker. We are looking for more of a robot who will do everything we ask of them.
"You must understand this is exactly why our company sucks, and you’ll be much happier without us. Best of luck in your career. Thanks, An Automated Response System."
Another 'love letter' read: "Dear Sam, Thank you for your interest in our internship position.
"We were honoured to receive your application. Unfortunately, we have concluded that you are quite simply too awesome for our organisation, which is incredibly dull and boring.
"Please do not be disheartened, your application suggests that you will be a great success as long as you don’t work for a boring company like ours. We look forward to regretting this rejection."
Yasin, who works as a consultant at Huzzle, said that the company currently receives around four emails a day from students asking for their job rejection letter to be rewritten into a positive Huzzle Love Letter. However, when students were applying for summer internships they were receiving around 24 letters a day.
He added that the company was so overwhelmed by the demand for 'love letters' that colleagues even suggested switching to an automated reply, but Yasin refused as it was exactly the approach he’s hoping to eliminate.
Yasin, 25, said: "The response so far has been pretty interesting. We've been getting a lot of letters. At one time students were still applying for their summer internships and we were getting so many of these rejections that at some point someone on the team said 'this is crazy' we can't keep getting all of these letters, we need to find a way to automate them'.
"But there was a lot of push back and of course we said no, this is something that should be completely personal, because what we're fighting against is that automated reply that you get from those applicant tracking systems that treat you like a number and don't treat you as a human being.
University of Bath student Kishan Shah, 21, was so happy after receiving her 'love letter' from Huzzle. She said before receiving the letter she felt deflated and despite receiving a number of job rejections, each one felt "devastating".
She added that she "loved" the 'love letter' and receiving one really cheered her up. She added: "It was great to hear that rather [than] rejecting me based on who I am and my work ethic they rejected me from a very shallow perspective. Therefore, [it] made me feel more motivated I guess and boosted my self-worth."
Read next:
