On onsite interviews

Sent this afternoon in response to a FOAD letter:

[General Electric recruiter’s name removed]:

Thank you for letting me know promptly so that I may continue my job search. I was very much looking forward to entering the Information Management Leadership Program next year, but I suppose that will not be the case. I assumed my natural abilities of learning, leading, and communicating were well within the program’s requirements. If the mere lack of a few more easy IT theory courses is truly what lies between this opportunity and me, then I’d like to politely recommend that IMLP not so actively woo engineering students outside of what very specific disciplines the program prefers.

I believe GE (specifically IMLP) and I would have been a very good match, and I am still baffled as to how my five interviews did not serve as reaffirmations of that fact. The only other factors that come to mind (such as no prior GE employment, no nepotism, and the lack of an IT/MIS major) are factors that GE’s recruiters were well aware of _before_ inviting me out to Atlanta. I stand helpless, fully believing that no amount of intelligence, wit, or charisma during the on-site interviews would have been sufficient to secure this position. If that is indeed the case, then I must ask, why was I even invited?

Regards,
J. Kyle Wild
University of Illinois

Let me state again that my admiration for GE as a company has not been lowered in the slightest. They are an amazing organization at what they do (making money and being stable at it), and I’m nothing if not saddened that I won’t be starting my career there. Still, for the sake of the many applicants (to many companies) that have been helpless in this very situation, I decided this letter was worth writing. I strongly doubt I will be receiving a reply any time soon.