Woman is rejected from a job, but manager adds an extra line to the basic template that changed everything: ‘He replied in two days with two names. one of them went nowhere. the other one was a hiring manager at a company that had not posted anything yet’

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Sep 20, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

We should cultivate the art of accepting and integrating criticism

Some forms of criticism arrive at the perfect moment, with the perfect combination of words, and they finally click; something within us changes.  

We finally understand something we've been unknowingly struggling with for so long, and we can (finally) let it go.

It's a mix of the messenger's sensitivity and tact in saying something like that, and our own willingness to listen at that given moment. When those stars align, we are ready to make a change.

They say rejection is God's protection; to me, it isn't necessary to be that idealistic. We can definitely take rejection as a way to learn something new and improve ourselves as people, and that attitude might actually lead us somewhere.

There are things about our personalities that we don't notice until somebody else points them out. We tend to think everything we do is normal, but it might be useful to hear that we might have a tendency to be too inflexible, or that we succumb under stress.

What I'm trying to say is that we can't improve those things if we never know about them, and that in corporate it's very difficult to receive earnest feedback that can actually boost our careers, so when it's there, we should appreciate it.

That is not to say we should accept everything anybody throws our way; some perceptions aren't true, of course. But we have to be really honest with ourselves and leave our egos aside to listen to the criticism we need to hear.

Looking back, a lot of good things started happening in my life when I took every rejection and every criticism and started working on the aspects everybody kept pointing out. And thanks to that, I'm much better now! So I hope this story motivates  anyone who's going through something like this.

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  • 見 COMMIN MARKETING CORGANIZATION ASWELTES PLAN CREATIVE PRODUCT GOAL AMWORK STRATEGY OLIVER MAX TAM TEAM Luke EMMA 45 HONY viel in ALE
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    Celebrating rejection

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  • the rejection email had one extra sentence that got me a job two months later

    got to the final two for a remote role in april and did not get it. the rejection was the normal template except at the bottom the hiring manager had added. a line himself, saying he thought i would be a good
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  • fit somewhere with more structure and less ambiguity than they had, and that he meant that as a compliment. first reaction was that it stung slightly. second reaction, about a day later,
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  • was that this is the only piece of actual feedback i had received in four months of applying. so i replied. not a long thing. i said thanks for the line, it was useful, and asked if he knew anyone
    via Inspirationphoric-57
  • building the kind of team he was describing. that is the whole email. he replied in two days with two names. one of them went nowhere. the other one was a hiring manager
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  • at a company that had not posted anything yet, and i had a call with her before the role was written. i ended up shaping part of the description in that conversation, which is a strange and very good position to be in.
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  • started there in june. i think the thing that made it work is that i responded to the specific thing he wrote rather than sending a general "keep me in mind" reply. he had told me something true about
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  • Cheezburger Image 10664821504
    via Rifki Kurniawan

    Rejection can be good

    Photo is a representation of scenes

  • myself and i treated it as information instead of as a consolation prize. most rejections are templates and there is nothing to reply to. but when someone puts a sentence of their own in,
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  • that is a person who spent thirty seconds thinking about you, and thirty seconds is enough to ask them for something small.
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  • Anna_KendrikJ this works maybe 1 in 20 times, but the cost of trying is only one email and thirty seconds of your time! great story
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  • will-read Email that original hiring manager and thank him. He is definitely someone you want in your network.
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  • kid_hunyana The gift of feedback. It is precious. Even if it hurts.
    via kid-hunyana
  • Cheezburger Image 10664828160
    via Vitaly Gariev

    Success can come in misterious ways

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workplace-stories toxic-workplace work workplace toxic-work-environment
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