A Sad Career Day

Today was a sad day for me because it was the first time in my career that I've had to tell someone that their application for a post was unsuccessful. I realise that this is a monthly occurrence for some people, but there's a first time for all of us.

It didn't seem to matter how I phrased the rejection, it always sounded trite and every attempt seemed vaguely familiar and evoked a feeling of distant dejection. In the end I settled for:

"I'm sorry to say that your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion"

I hope this is the norm and that our unsuccessful candidate is not too upset (who was incidentally excellent, just pipped at the post by others with that extra bit of lucky experience in the exact areas we were looking for).