How to Write a Rejection Letter for Job Candidates + Templates

How you treat your applicants says a lot about you as an employer, and that includes how you handle job rejection letters. You need to deliver bad news politely and professionally, while keeping top candidates in your talent pool and building a positive candidate experience.

This guide will offer best practices for how to politely reject a candidate for a job. We’ll give you adaptable rejection letter templates for candidates at every stage of the funnel, which will leave people with a good impression of your organization and strengthen your employer brand.

What should you include in a job rejection letter?

1. Appreciation for time and effort

Job-hunting is arduous and a little humanity goes a long way. Each candidate deserves recognition for their time and effort, regardless of how far they make it through your hiring process. At the same time, it isn’t scalable to write personalized messages for all candidates at every stage. This is why automated emails for those who don’t pass the initial screening are standard practice, where you simply have to thank them for their interest in working with you and for their time.

Those further along in the recruitment process expect more than a generic automated message, so add specific details for a better candidate experience. For example, for everyone who completed a take-home task:

For candidates you’re especially interested in retaining, or for those who make it to the final round, go a step further by adding more detail to their rejection letter:

2. A clear decision

An overly blunt or sugarcoated message isn’t helpful. Be clear about your decision early in the letter. The candidate should be under no illusions about where they stand or their potential future with your organization, so avoid vague cliches like “we’ve decided to go in a different direction.” These are overused and add no value. Be specific, if appropriate, to avoid confusion.

3. Optional: Feedback or next steps

When offering feedback, always begin with the positives. Let them know what you liked about them before talking about where they need to improve. Focus on helping them to:

• Fill their skills gaps: Tell them what they’re missing, and send them any relevant courses or industry qualifications.
• Improve their portfolio: Let them know what’s missing or what needs to be improved.
• Learn more about the industry: Recommend resources, like online communities and content, to help them dive deeper into your niche.
• Perform better in interviews: Avoid commenting on their personality and focus on things they’re able to change, such as their problem-solving skills during technical interviews.

Your goal is to be genuinely helpful, so give them actionable feedback and next steps to follow. For example:

Giving feedback is tricky, as even when you have the best intentions, your words can potentially be taken poorly. To mitigate this, frame things they got wrong as room for improvement, and skills they’re missing as opportunities for growth.

When you’re getting specific about what a candidate did or didn’t do during the interview process, it’s important to be aware of potential legal risks. We’ll get into that further on in this article.

Encouragement and openness

The closing of your rejection letter may be your last chance to create a positive final impression of your organization. A little humanity goes a long way, especially if you’ve built up rapport with the candidate and want to keep them in your talent pool. For example, saying “I understand that this will be disappointing news.”

Be clear about what potential future they have with your organization. If you’re pretty certain you’ll not consider another application from them in the future, simply wish them the best of luck. This ends on a positive note without giving them false hope. Tell them if you would love to see them apply for future roles, or offer to keep their details on file (with their permission) and to contact them if something fitting comes along.

When and how should you send rejection letters?

For your rejection letters to be received as well as possible, consider the following:

Timing

You should reject a candidate soon after the decision is final, ideally within three to five business days after they exit the process. Take extra time to craft a personalized message for final-stage candidates. This increases the chances of keeping them in your talent pool. Find the balance between personalization and timeliness, and aim to deliver a response within five business days.

Sender

The right person to send the rejection changes, depending on the stage the candidates reach in the hiring process.

• Application only: Recruiter (via automation)
• Recruiter screening call: Recruiter
• Hiring manager interview: Hiring manager or recruiter
• Final round: Hiring manager
• Executive-level: Hiring manager or senior leadership

Usually, the person the candidate interacted with the most should send the rejection, as they have likely built up the most rapport.

Multi-channel feedback

If you do choose to give feedback to a candidate, there’s no need to fit it all into the rejection letter. You only need to cover the reasons why they were not chosen. For those you want to retain in your talent pool, offer them a brief feedback call with the recruiter. 15 to 20 minutes should be plenty.

Automation

Your recruitment strategy may already include automated rejection emails for those who don’t pass initial screening. If you decide to automate rejection across the funnel, don’t neglect personalization. Combining AI and templates will save you time and ensure a consistent applicant experience, but for effective rejection letters, you will need to add the human touch.

Rejection letter templates and examples for every stage of the funnel

Use these short and simple rejection letter examples as inspiration for your own, personalizing where needed. You could also run them by your comms team to ensure they’re aligned with your brand voice. If you plan on giving specific feedback in these letters, collaborate with your legal team to create guidelines on what to say and what to avoid.

Template 1: General rejection

Focus on:

• Delivering the decision quickly and without fluff
• Adding genuine appreciation
• Encouraging future applications

Tip: If you have a feedback survey on your application process, a talent community, or a careers newsletter, this is the place to promote it.

Template 2: Rejection after interview

Focus on:

• Explaining clearly why they won’t be moving forward
• Balancing honesty with tact
• Offering potential next steps

Tip: Sprinkle in some details about their application or from their interview. Even if this email is automated, it shouldn’t feel automated.

Template 3: Final-round rejection

Focus on:

• Acknowledging the candidate’s time and effort
• Offering appropriate feedback
• Keeping them in your talent pool with next steps

Tip: These are the candidates you’ll most likely want to offer a feedback call to. Make sure it doesn’t fall through the cracks by letting the candidate schedule their call through a calendar link.

Template 4: Internal candidate rejection

Focus on:

• Ensuring the candidate does not feel discouraged, or feel motivated to job-hunt elsewhere
• Explaining the decision respectfully
• Highlighting the value of their current role
• Offering them a clear alternative path to growth, or an invitation to a 1:1 with their manager or your HR team

How do rejection letters influence your employer brand?

How you treat people in your hiring process is a strong indicator of how you treat your employees – rejection is a key part of that. According to studies, 72% of candidates report that they would publicly share a negative hiring or interview experience with others or online.

Rejection letters should leave candidates feeling that you:

• Respect and appreciate their time
• Make decisions fairly and transparently
• Prioritize good communication
• Engage with empathy and genuine care

When it comes to candidate satisfaction with recruitment processes, the most frustration stems from rejection after the assessment. A dismissive and vague rejection letter at this stage will only exacerbate that frustration. But a rejection letter that hits all of the points above will soften the blow. As a recruiter, you want candidates to walk away fully understanding why they did not get the job and believing they were treated fairly. The best candidate experience will turn them into promoters for your organization, and leave them open to apply for future roles.

Should you offer feedback in a rejection letter?

According to research, the most common complaint among rejected candidates is the quality or lack of feedback they received. So on one hand, giving feedback is key to creating a positive candidate experience and building your employer brand. On the other hand, it takes up more of your time, and you may have more candidates requesting feedback calls than you have hours to spare.

Businesses have another reason for not giving detailed feedback to rejected candidates: they don’t want to get sued. Even with good intentions, feedback can easily be misinterpreted. For example, telling someone they’re too inexperienced or too senior for a role may be interpreted as age discrimination. Or saying a woman is not ‘aggressive’ or ‘ambitious’ enough for the role reinforces gender stereotypes.

Here’s how to give constructive and honest feedback while mitigating legal risk:

• Highlight the positives: Keep the interaction friendly and help the candidate understand their strengths.
• Don’t get personal: Avoid personality critiques and emotive language like “aggressive.”
• Focus on the job spec: Have a clear correlation between your feedback and the requirements of the role.
• Standardize feedback across teams: Create internal guidelines for giving feedback, including advice on avoiding legal ramifications.
• Give feedback live: If you’re especially keen to retain a candidate in your talent pool, offer feedback with a call rather than in an email.

Rejection letters at scale: Manage them efficiently with Deel ATS

Deel ATS helps you create seamless workflows that keep communication running smoothly between you and your candidates, eliminating accidental ghosting while reducing manual lift. Filter through applications quickly and efficiently, with a dashboard that provides visibility between recruiting teams. Collaboration is easier, hiring decisions are made faster, and candidates will be happier.

Get started today by booking your free demo.