'No Hard Feelings': Recruiter's Viral Rejection Email Calls Out Candidate's AI Cover Letter And Typos

Getting a rejection email is usually a cold, robotic experience. However, one recruiter is going viral for their blunt, and really detailed critique of an applicant’s lazy job hunting!

According to an article by Moneycontrol, the story began when an unnamed candidate shared a screenshot of their rejection email sent on June 4. The message came from a hiring manager at Limestone Digital, a software development firm based in Prague. Instead of sending a automated, generic template, the recruiter went out of their way to detail exactly why the application fell flat on its face.

According to the recruiter, the cover letter “read as AI-generated” and failed to concisely explain a difficult bug as instructed. The take-home task used placeholders like

“temp1, temp2, temp3” with zero comments or testing. The worst part? The candidate misspelled “Limestone Digital” twice. All this while claiming “attention to detail” as a strength.

The hiring manager wrote: “If you reapply with something that shows you wrote it and read it before sending, we’ll review it again. No cooldown period, no hard feelings.”

“You Couldn’t Ask For A Better Rejection”

Instead of sparking outrage against the company, the viral post backfired completely on the applicant. The internet overwhelmingly sided with Limestone Digital, praising the recruiter for providing actionable, free mentorship in a job market that is notoriously opaque.

One user wrote, “They are giving you the option to try again. You couldn’t ask for a better rejection letter,” while another added, “I would have loved to get this level of specific rejection. It is constructive… better than being left wandering in the dark.”

Many people praised the recruiter for taking the time to give feedback. “This is actually amazing feedback. You should write them a thank you note. But don’t use AI to generate it.”

And others were impressed with the effort as well: “I want to work for whoever wrote this,” wrote another user.