rejection letter

Question

This is part of a letter I found online. Is there anything you find to be incorrect or ungrammatical?
I am writing to let you that we have selected the candidate whom we believe most closely matches the job requirements of the position.

How would you say this at the end of the letter?
We wish you success in/with your future endeavors.

Regards

Thanks

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

AnonymousI am writing to let you that we have selected the candidate whom we believe most closely matches the job requirements of the position.

And that is you! Congratulations!

BarbaraPA · Answer

AlpheccaStarsAnd that is you! Congratulations!

Not much of a rejection letter, is it?

I have seen "After careful consideration, we have elected to move forward with another candiate. We appreciate your interest in the position and wish you the best of luck in the future."

Anonymous · Answer

I see Barbara,

Would you let me know if this is correct in terms of grammar?
I am writing to let you that we have selected the candidate whom we believe most closely matches the job requirements of the position. We wish you success in/with your future endeavors.

The help is greatly appreciated.

BarbaraPA · Answer

The grammar is fine*, and there's not much difference between "success in" and "success with" in this context.

The problem with this letter is that it doesn't make it immediately clear that it's a rejection. That's why A Stars said (jokingly, I'm sure) that after the first sentence, it could in fact say "And that's you! Congratulations!"

If you want to stick with your wording, I suggest something more like ... we have selected another candidate who more closely matches to positions requirements.

("job requirements of the position" is a bit redundant, don't you think?)

And the problem with THAT is that in this age of litigation, the person you are rejecting can come back and say "You said 5-7 years of experience, and I have 6. You said a BS in Management, and I have a BS in Management. You said familiarity with the semiconductor industry, and I worked for Intel for four years. The other person has only 5 years, has a BS in Marketing, not Business, and has only 3 years with the industry. You descriminated against me! I'm suing!"

That's why simply saying you're "moving forward with another candidate" or have "selected a candiate who is the best fit for the position" omits this idea that you can do an apples-to-apples comparison of the requirements you advertised and the rejected person and the person hired.

*I'll leave the who/whom debate to others. I would have thought you needed who because it's "who most closely matches" but otherw will say "whom" beacause it's the object of "believe."

RandomGuy · Answer

BarbaraPAotherw will say "whom" beacause it's the object of "believe."

They would be quite mistaken. The relative clause is understood as We believe he most closely matches the job requirements of the position, not We believe him.

Anonymous · Answer

Barbara is there a typo in your sentence?

closely matches to....

BarbaraPA · Answer

Yes, it should have been "the" not "to."

rejection letter

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