Rejection emails are just that, emails.

These templated rejection emails can really mess with our motivation and make us second-guess ourselves.In reality, they’re often a mundane process of cleaning up the dashboard with one click, an API gets triggered, and an email is sent.

I went through two rounds of interview for this role, including discussions with the UX Director. We had a great conversation and when it came down to compensation, the director was super transparent that they simply couldn’t meet my expectations. Instead of dragging things out, she clearly mentioned it would be a waste of my time unless I was willing to take a hit, and we both agreed not to continue the interview process. And we still ended up talking about the general UX industry for a good 15 minutes after that.

But then, I got this rejection email, which had nothing to do with the actual conversation we had. It was just a generic template.

So, don’t take these emails personally. I know it’s been said before, but I wanted to share my experience to show how disconnected these emails can be from what actually happens behind the scenes.

The good thing about these emails is that we aren’t left hanging. I like finding out the outcome of my effort. So, that’s good enough for me.