The nicest No

Over the last month or so, I've been interviewing for a new job. It's within my current company - and was done with the knowledge and support of my boss - so there's no problem telling you about it now.

This all came about as a result of discussions about career planning. I've been in my current job for over a year and a half now and it's at a company I quite like and expressed my desire to start building a career. (For those of you who don't know me - that last statement is quite profound....) As a result, when an opportunity came up in another area of the business, I applied.

Long story short, it came down to me an an external candidate. After weeks of interviews and waiting I was told that last Wednesday a decision would be made. By early Friday when I hadn't heard back, I pretty much knew what the answer was.

Late Friday afternoon, the woman whom the role reported called me with the news that they had offered the position to the other candidate. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but how she said it and what she said made it so easy to hear.

She started off with thanking me for applying, then proceeded to tell me how difficult I had made it for them to make a decision. Apparently they chose the other guy because he had 15 years experience in the exact job (my background is actually quite diverse) and that he was CA qualified (I'd rather sit at home and stab myself with forks than try for an accounting designation....). So the rationale for the decision made it easy to accept - but she went above and beyond that.

I asked for feedback - what I could do better or differently - and she said 'nothing'. That I'd interviewed well and that they really liked my style and if they had had two jobs they would have hired me. She promised to keep me in mind should another opportunity arise and actually offered to meet up for coffee should I ever have any questions or want any kind of advice or info about the company.

How nice was that?

Then she went further and told me that when talking to people around the bank that all of the feedback she'd gotten was really good.

I don't think I could have asked for more. My only disappointment really was not working in her team - I think it would have been quite a good atmosphere and I think it would have been a really good working relationship.

But all in all? It was the nicest no I've ever had.

Probably the only time in my life that rejection made me feel better about myself.