EY Singapore campus rejection email puts '[Rejection]' right in the subject line — and job seekers say they prefer it

A screenshot shared on Reddit’s r/recruitinghell has drawn an unexpected approval for a rejection email from netizens.

The inbox image shows a message, apparently from EYSG’s campus recruitment team, with a subject line beginning, in square brackets, “[Rejection] We appreciate your i...” There was no need to open it.

“Just makes me laugh; it’s like, hey, don’t even bother clicking on this email or reading a single word after the first one, this is a rejection,” the original poster wrote. “Oh, you thought?”

They saw an upside too: “At least it doesn’t get people all excited when they see the sender.”

Directly beneath it in the screenshot were two LinkedIn job alerts arriving within minutes, a consulting internship in Singapore at Boston Consulting Group and an associate director role at HSBC. This is a small snapshot of how quickly the search moves on, and the reality job seekers are currently facing.

What Reddit said

The thread was strikingly and unexpectedly positive. “I actually prefer this rather than some long paragraph that wastes everyone’s time,” one commenter wrote.

“I always appreciate that to be honest, it’s more clear,” another said. One called for it to become standard practice: “All companies should do this instead of the ‘unfortunately….’”

Another kept it simple: “Saves you a couple seconds at least.”

These replies show the exasperation that job seekers are feeling with the current job market; they’d rather be given the bad news quickly, rather than prolonging their agony through employer ghosting or late replies. This is a reflection on the unfortunate status of the current market.

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