I got rejected a gazillion times in my career and I still get rejected left and right.
However the moment I express my lack of interest advanced in the position, I get bombarded by emails and requests for meeting…
This happened to me twice:
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A few years ago. I passed all the stages, the position included relocation, I missed one thing in my negotiation: the taxes in the new place are really high. I emailed them explaining my position, not interested anymore because of taxes… Then I start getting requests to set up meetings, and attempt to get me to explain to answer a long list of questions… I tried to be nice and helpful but it seems people lost their temper already (started getting “unprofessional” emails)
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More recently, I passed the first few stages, the last stage seemed too frustrating and slow so I gave up. All of the sudden, things changed again and everyone is trying to understand more in detail…
Why are we expected to eat rejections and not take it personally but they can’t take their own advice?
They got pissed that you weren’t as desperate as they thought you were when they rejected everyone else in favor of you, and wanted more info to weed people like you out earlier in the future. Or to pressure you into changing your mind; that would suit their desires equally well, being pressure-able or desperate are basically the same for employers.
At least that’s my assumption. I’ve had similar experiences turning jobs down that I just didn’t want after talking to several people, or hearing more about the job, and they all get upset about it. But they certainly won’t be changing anything, so it’s not like there’s a valid reason to demand an explanation.
Whenever that happens, I just tell them “I’ve explained myself sufficiently, and I don’t work for nor do business with your company. I thus have no compelling reason to continue interacting with you, particularly for something you want me to give you that comes at a time and effort cost to me.” I bid them farewell, and am prepared to block/ignore them if they send me anything else. I chose the phrasing to be direct, and let them know it was a wildly inappropriate ask, while still being reasonably professional. I have never gotten a follow-up after that.
It’s great that you respond like this because then the hiring manager can show their boss this and both be happy they dodged a fedora bullet