Rejection email template: How to follow up gracefully with candidates you don’t hire

October 9, 2025

 

Alex Oliver

10 min read

For every candidate you hire, several others don’t make the cut. Following up with a job rejection email gives them closure and prevents them from forming a negative opinion of your company.

What makes an effective rejection email? Below, we cover the benefits of rejection emails, best practices, and customizable templates to help you deliver a better candidate experience, protect your brand, and grow your talent pipeline.

Key takeaways

• You may notify candidates of rejection at various stages in your recruitment process, such as after an application review, assessment, or interview.
  
• Candidate rejection email best practices, such as adopting an empathetic yet professional tone, personalization, and prompt delivery, differentiate you from competitors and foster a positive impression of your brand.
  
• A candidate relationship management (CRM) system enables you to personalize and automate rejection emails, thereby improving hiring efficiency and the candidate experience.

Employer benefits of job rejection emails

Candidate rejection emails provide closure to candidates, allowing them to stop waiting for an interview that will never come, which otherwise can quickly turn to resentment toward your brand.

Following up with a rejection notice serves several purposes:

• Strengthens your employer brand: 18% of candidates who don’t hear back from you after an interview will take adverse action against your company, like leaving a negative review. Professional rejection emails leave a positive impression and encourage candidates to apply again in the future.
  
• Expands your talent pool: Continued communication with unsuccessful candidates builds your talent pool. You gain access to talent, including silver medalists, who may fit future positions and reduce time to fill.
  
• Improves the candidate experience: 47% of workers say they would withdraw from the hiring process due to poor company communication. Candidates invest time and effort in applications and deserve to know their status. Leaving them in limbo harms your image, while timely rejection letters improve their experience.

Explore other ways to increase your access to highly qualified talent with the Definitive guide to building your talent pipeline.

Reasons for job rejection emails

Whether it’s a rejection email after an interview, assessment, or résumé submission, candidates are unsuccessful in your hiring process for various reasons.

Clarifying why allows you to provide helpful feedback, so they have a better chance of success in their job search elsewhere. It also identifies areas for improvement in your hiring process, like updating job descriptions to attract the right candidates.

Common rejection reasons include:

• Lack of minimum requirements: Candidates fail to meet specific requirements, like required licenses or years of experience.
• Under- or overqualified: Candidates may meet the minimum job requirements, but their skills don’t align with job demands, resulting in overextended or bored employees.
• Assessment issues: Candidates don’t adequately pass assessments or skills tests.
• Strong competition: Many highly skilled candidates applied, making the selection challenging.
• Poor interview performance or cultural fit: Candidates may be uninterested, unprepared, or misaligned with your company’s culture and values.
• Background or reference checks: Post-offer screenings reveal employment discrepancies or unfavorable recommendations.
• Job expectations misalignment: For example, a candidate’s compensation expectations exceed your budget for the role, or they are unwilling to relocate for a position.

Tips for writing an employment rejection email

At a minimum, each job rejection email should contain the following:

• Your company name.
• Candidate’s name.
• Contact information for the recruiter or hiring manager.
• Job title or position.
• Reason for rejection.

Outside of the above, what you include in your employment rejection email is up to you. The most crucial aspect is striking a balance between professionalism and empathy.

You want to make it clear to candidates that the rejection is final, while acknowledging the time they spent in the process and wishing them luck in their continued job search. If you’re wondering how to write a rejection email, try the tips below to get started.

Send rejection promptly

No matter when you reject them from the application process, notify candidates as soon as possible to prevent undue stress or feelings of neglect. The faster you inform them, the sooner they can pursue other job opportunities.

Try to send candidate rejection emails within two weeks following their application submission and within two to three days after a phone screening, assessment, or interview.

Pro tip: Avoid automatic rejection emails, even when candidates fail to meet minimum requirements. With 32% of candidates fearing that AI disqualifies their applications, receiving an automatic rejection minutes after applying only reinforces their concerns and creates a negative company image. You may even inadvertently lead candidates to believe you disqualified them for discriminatory reasons, such as their gender or age, creating legal issues.

Thank the candidate

Always express gratitude to the candidates at the beginning of rejection emails.

Candidates often spend significant time researching your company and tailoring their résumés, CVs, and cover letters to highlight the skills that closely align with your position’s needs when they apply. A simple acknowledgment of this means a great deal to candidates, as it demonstrates that you took care when making your decision.

Be clear and concise

A job rejection email should be clear, concise, and strike a balance between directness and empathy.

Don’t sugarcoat the rejection, which can confuse candidates or even prompt attempts to negotiate the decision. Keep the rejection and reason brief, avoiding excessive details that could put you in legal hot water.

Personalize it

Personalization is the key to maintaining a positive reputation and having your candidate rejection email stand out among employers. It makes it read like a real person wrote it, rather than a boilerplate form letter.

A few ways to add a personal touch to your rejection notices:

• Reference the candidate’s name, skills, or employment background.
• Mention something positive about the candidate from their interview or assessment.
• Use industry-specific language to avoid sounding generic.
• Offer skill-focused constructive feedback to support their professional growth.
• Suggest other well-suited positions for the candidate to apply to in the company, if available.

Comply with regulations

Several laws influence your hiring practices, including data privacy regulations such as the GDPR and the CCPA, as well as anti-discrimination laws like Title VII and the ADA.

Avoid mentioning protected characteristics, such as race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, age, marital status, or pregnancy status. Doing so risks appearing biased, which can lead to claims of discrimination.

You also need to protect candidates’ private information by maintaining consistent recordkeeping practices for both external and internal candidates.

Store data in secure physical or electronic locations and ensure that only authorized parties, such as recruiters and hiring managers, have access. Don’t reveal internal metrics or comparative information about other candidates, as this may also prompt legal action.

If a candidate requests deletion, respond without undue delay and within the required statutory timeframes (e.g., within one month under GDPR; within 45 days under California’s CCPA/CPRA, with limited exceptions). You can make it even easier by providing them with removal requests or unsubscribe links, allowing them to delete their information and opt out of future communications.

End on a positive note

End your rejection notices positively. Wish candidates well in their future endeavors, encourage them to apply for future opportunities, and offer ways to connect with your company’s news, events, or talent network. These soften the rejection and keep the conversation going.

Continuing to engage with talent is vital for building a pipeline to source candidates, like silver medalists, for urgent roles. So instead of a “goodbye,” the rejection letter becomes a tool for ongoing conversation.

Use an applicant tracking system

It may seem like a tall order to send personalized rejection emails to every unsuccessful candidate, especially when faced with hundreds of new applications daily.

However, with an enterprise-grade ATS, such as iCIMS Hire, you can automate and customize rejection emails to ensure every candidate feels respected. It enables you to create multiple rejection templates and use form fields to input key applicant data automatically. The result is that communications are ready to go at once, without the need to type and send each one manually.

Discover how iCIMS ATS streamlines and manages communications with candidates.

Common job rejection email mistakes to avoid

To prevent legal troubles, poor brand reputation, or talent pool shrinkage, avoid the following in your candidate rejection emails:

• Ghosting candidates: Ignoring candidates suggests that you don’t value their time, which can damage your employer brand.
• Delayed responses: Slow follow-up with candidates, especially after interviews, can frustrate them and fuel negative impressions.
• Harsh criticism: Overly critical feedback can sink morale, harm your image, and potentially create legal issues.
• False hope: Claiming a candidate is “perfect” for the role or promising future opportunities can be misleading and result in unwanted follow-ups.
• Illegal explanations: Discussing protected characteristics, personal details, or other candidates’ qualifications violates anti-discrimination and privacy laws.
• Generic language: Vague, clichéd, or standardized rejection emails make you seem inconsiderate of candidates’ time.

Example rejection email templates

From rejection following application submission to a rejection email after an interview, here are two versions you can customize.

Post-application submission rejection email template

Subject line: Thank you for your interest in [Company name]

Hello [Candidate name],

Thank you for expressing interest in [Company name] and the [Job title] position. While we were impressed with your qualifications, unfortunately, we’ve decided to move forward with other applicants whose skills and experience better meet our needs.

We appreciate your interest in [Company name] and look forward to staying in touch with you. Please reach out if we have another open role that interests you.

To stay up-to-date on current job openings and ensure you’re included in our search for future great candidates, we encourage you to join our talent community and connect with us here: [link to talent pipeline nurture page].

Best regards,

[Sender name]

P.S.: If you’d like to remove your information from our talent system, please submit a request here: [link to data removal request form].

Post-phone or live interview rejection email template

Subject line: Following up on your interview for the [Job title] position

Hello [Candidate name],

Thank you for taking the time to speak to me regarding our [Job title] position. I was impressed with your qualifications and experience, especially [information you learned in the interview]. However, after careful consideration, we’ve unfortunately decided to move forward with other applicants whose skills and experience better meet our current needs.

We sincerely appreciate your interest in [Company name] and hope that you’ll stay in touch. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we have another open role that interests you.

To stay up-to-date on current job openings and ensure you’re included in our search for future great candidates, we encourage you to join our talent community and connect with us here: [link to talent pipeline nurture page].

We wish you all the luck in your future endeavors.

Best regards,

[Sender name]

P.S.: If you’d like to remove your information from our talent system, please submit a request here: [link to data removal request form].

Streamline and customize your candidate rejection emails

Your candidate rejection process shouldn’t take hours, especially when you could better spend your time nurturing talent with valuable skills. You need a recruitment platform that manages rejection emails and other candidate communications throughout hiring.

Comprehensive recruitment software like iCIMS gives you CRM tools to regularly communicate through email campaigns with prospects and silver-medalist candidates. Meanwhile, its ATS and video interviewing platform support applicants as they progress through your hiring funnel.

If you’re ready to learn more, schedule an iCIMS demo to see it in action.