Receiving a rejection letter (or more likely email) is a uniquely crushing experience that most likely all of us will have encountered at some stage in our life. Even when applying for jobs that we don’t really want, but simply have to, receiving a rejection letter is like a punch in the gut.
You just can’t help questioning everything about yourself that might have caused it.
However, one teenager decided that rejecting her simply wasn’t an option, and so rejected the rejection.
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One 18-year-old has gone viral for her hilarious, and effective, response to a rejection letter.
Jessica Irving lives in Sydney, Australia, and was growing tired of the rejection letters she was receiving, and so decided to take a more dogmatic approach to job hunting than most of us.
The position which Jessica Irving had applied for was retail assistant at the supermarket chain Aldi.
It can be a difficult and arduous process for young people to find first time employment when studying or simply to get on the business ladder, and so remaining positive in the face of disheartening responses to applications is crucial. Well, Ms Irving took this one step further.
The rejection email which she received was pretty a pretty straightforward affair.
For most people, the receipt of this sort of email would be met with a quiet curse-word and perhaps a quick trip to the pub; however, for Ms Irving, this was not the end!
Upon receiving the disheartening email, as opposed to simply deleting it, Ms Irving replied with her own rejection.
The email that Ms Irving sent outlined how her skills were perfect for the position, and emphasized how ridiculous it was for them to turn her down.
We probably all wish we had the courage to do this.
There have often been times where I have thought about replying to these sorts of emails, but I’m far too lazy to get locked into a lengthy exchange of emails which would likely end in the same end result.
Ms Irving’s email began very professionally, succinctly outlining her skills.
Ms Irving’s response was far from over though, with her saving the bombshell for the very end of her response.
Her response quickly took an unexpected turn, one which certainly demonstrates an enviable level of self-belief!
“I would like to confidently reject your rejection,” she wrote, “Thank you for letting me be part of your team, I won’t let you down.”
Ms Irving probably thought that, though a good effort, she would not hear back from the company.
Therefore, imagine her surprise when the supermarket chain actually got back in touch with her via email.
Not only did they respond, but they offered Ms Irving an interview!
Aldi’s response to her rejection of their rejection of her initial application (this is turning progressively into a Dr. Seuss extract but bear with me) was to offer her a place in a group interview.
They may not have specified what caused the change of heart, but it could only be one thing.
Um, can I please get this kind of response when I get job rejections???
Ms Irving explained her shock at the response she received in an interview.
Speaking to the Daily Mail , Ms Irving explained that, “When applying for the job I thought I’d be a really strong candidate. I even waited almost a year to apply due to their 18-plus rule.”
Even after having received the interview, Ms Irving still “can’t believe it even worked”.
Ms Irving went on to say, “It’s one of my local stores so being rejected was kind of a huge bummer and I didn’t want to apply for a store so far away so I thought I’d give it a go and it worked, surprisingly.”
Aldi has yet to comment on the now-viral story.
It is safe to assume that, following Ms Irving’s success story, that the supermarket chain will be inundated with emails of this nature from now on!
Ms Irving posted the screenshots of her response on Facebook as a loophole for unemployment.
The dogmatic teen thinks that another manager must have been taken aback by her response and been impressed by her initiative.
“I guess a different manager [must have read it] – they must have been impressed by my approach!”
At the very least, they were intrigued enough to actually want to talk to her in person, unlike the person who chose to just reject her application.
The post has been shared more than 8,000 times, with the comments flooded with praise!
The comments praised Ms Irving for her gall and the story prompted some people to wonder how far you could take this strategy.
You can clearly tell how much catharsis people were getting from her act.
“HAHAHA when you override the system!”
“Just quickly emailing NASA for a job…”
And the job interview isn’t the only kind of interview her gumption got her.
Jessica shared screenshots of a bunch of messages she’s received from news stations.
Considering all the publicity, Aldi’s probably going to be feeling pretty pressured to hire her. Which is good, because they probably should.
With the interview this coming Saturday, we can only wish Jessica the best of luck!
It’s hard to imagine that they will not bring up the now infamous email in the interview, hopefully they will see it as a strong demonstration of initiative!
h/t: Daily Mail and Unilad
