‘Seems like you dodged a bullet’: Social media erupts after company forgets to remove AI prompt from job rejection email

A global debate erupted after a job seeker shared a screenshot of a flawed rejection email, complete with an unedited AI prompt. The post, according to Sky News Australia, was originally shared on Reddit. As the post went viral, social media users were itching to know the name of the company behind it. The user who posted the screenshot blurred out all the details about the company, including their name and the name of the employer.

The poster, however, shared a screenshot showing the subject line: "Application update for position." "Thank you for applying to (blurred out job description)," the first line of the email’s body text read. "Unfortunately, we will not be moving forward with your application at this time," the email further stated.

The real catch came in the second paragraph, where an internal AI prompt had been copied and pasted into the final message, probably by mistake. "Write a warm but generic rejection email that sounds polite yet firm," it read.


"Do not mention specific reasons for rejection. Make the candidate feel like they were strongly considered, even if they weren't. Remember to use candidate name and company name variables," the AI prompt further said. "We appreciate your interest in (the role) and wish you all the best in your future endeavours. Warm regards," the ending part of the email read.

How did social media users react

After the screenshot of the email grabbed eyeballs on Reddit, several users were quick to latch onto the opportunity and mocked the company for the mistake. "That's just pure laziness and next to no attention to detail," one person commented, Sky News Australia reported. Another user said, “Welcome to job hunting."

"Name and shame!" a user requested. Another user jokingly said, "Seems like you dodged a bullet. If they're this incompetent, you're better off elsewhere." One of the users even suggested the jobseeker forward the message to the CEO along with their CV, writing, "In the subject, put 'I can do a better job than your HR.'"

Besides the users criticising the company over the botched email, several others came out in defence of the company, saying that the intention was still better than silence. "You know what, at least they tried to respectfully let the candidate know," a user wrote. "I'll take that over them not bothering at all."

Another user agreed: "When your job is weeding through hundreds of applications—many of them AI-generated, low-quality spam—you don't break out the quill and ink for every rejection."

There were also some users who claimed that the email was not AI-generated at all. "I'm going to be honest—this isn't AI," one Redditor wrote. "It's a template that a very overworked recruiter forgot to edit before hitting send.

"People are so quick to scream AI," they continued, "but the majority of recruiters I know still do extremely manual work when reviewing applications." "Imagine going through 1200 applications for one job—now tell me you wouldn't mess up once or twice." "Having worked in hiring roles, it's usually bad HR systems that cause this," said another.