SINGAPORE: The internet has seen its fair share of bizarre job rejection messages, and one Singaporean has just added another to the collection after receiving an HR text thanking him for discussing his salary expectations, despite the fact that the topic had never come up.
Sharing the exchange on the r/singaporejobs forum, the candidate said the HR representative had told him he would be heading straight to an interview with the finance manager.
“HR said it’s straight to the hiring round with the finance manager,” he recalled. “But guy just asked self intro only.”
The pair had barely exchanged more than a few words, never mind discussed salary expectations, which is why he was stunned to receive the WhatsApp message from HR:
“Thank you for your time and for sharing your expectations. As our budget for this role does not align, we will not be moving forward with your application at this time. We truly appreciate your interest and wish you all the best in your job search.”
The man replied: “But I haven’t shared any salary expectations with you.“
Rather than clarifying the mix-up, the HR representative simply sent another generic rejection.
“I am sorry, we will not be moving forward with your application as it is not aligned with our requirements at this time. We appreciate your interest and wish you all the best in your job search.”
To this, the man simply responded, “Hahaha”
The HR representative then replied:
“I am sorry about that.”
Finding the whole exchange rather fishy, the man wrote in the caption, “Seems like they already decided on someone and wanted to show like they contacted different job seekers and selected one.”
“Don’t blame you for HAHA-ing in their face”
In the comments, many suspected the HR representative had simply fired off a copy-and-paste rejection without checking whether it bore any resemblance to what had actually happened.
One said, “Probably just gave a copy and paste answer for a rejection. Do appreciate that the company bothered to quickly tell this candidate that he got rejected. The reason doesn’t really matter. They moved on.”
Another commented, “I mean, communicating any official arrangement through WhatsApp is pretty unprofessional I’d say? Don’t blame you for HAHA-ing in their face for their brainless copy-paste rejection reply.”
As for whether the interview had simply been a formality and the company already had a preferred candidate in mind, one commenter said it was certainly possible.
They wrote, “Possible. Sometimes, they have to go through the motion for show, even though they already have someone in mind. The chosen person doesn’t even need to do much in the interview.”
Bizarre rejection emails are hardly a rarity online, and neither are the equally memorable replies they sometimes receive from job seekers.
One Reddit user, posting on r/recruitinghell, shared a rejection email in which the HR representative had apparently forgotten to edit the template before sending it. The message even included an internal prompt that was clearly never meant for the candidate to see.
At the other end of the spectrum, another Reddit user posted what many would probably consider the holy grail of rejection emails: a detailed response explaining exactly where they had fallen short and what they could improve to boost their chances in future applications.
Sharing a screenshot of the email, the user wrote, “The most useful rejection email I’ve ever gotten, truly a unicorn in today’s market.”
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