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I'm a recent graduate looking for work.

I rang up a small private firm to make a speculative enquiry about openings. I was put through to the head of department, who asked me to email my resume which I did along with my work samples. I even offered to work unpaid for a short duration to gain experience.

A week later I heard nothing, and I sent email asking if had a chance to review and made a decision and received this response from him:

Hi Sally. Unfortunately we do not have any suitable openings at the current time. I will definitely keep your cv under reference for suitable junior roles in the near future.

Best,

Mr Head of dept

Is this a very polite rejection?

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's asking us to interpret an email written in very clear and unambiguous terms (whether they might be trying to avoid just straight-up telling you they're not interested is entirely possible, but that's something we can only speculate about).
    – Bernhard Barker
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 14:51
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    No reason to close it. The answer is there. It's a very simple answer, but an answer nonetheless: Yes. It is a very polite rejection letter, and likely more polite than most could expect. Heck, most times for me they just...never get back to me.
    – SliderBlackrose
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 14:55
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    @SliderBlackrose It's not because it has a simple answer, it's because it's more of an, I guess, English language question than a workplace one (or it's opinion-based if we're speculating about the potential hidden meaning behind it). There's nothing about the email we can explain beyond what it says at face value.
    – Bernhard Barker
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 15:02
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    "I even offered to work unpaid for a short duration to gain experience." - Maybe you shouldn't do this in the future, unless if you're applying for an (unpaid) internship.
    – Brandin
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 17:02
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    I've rolled this back to the original question; if you have a new question, please just start a new post rather than tacking additional questions onto this one - Stack Exchange has a strict "one question per post" policy.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Mar 15, 2018 at 16:17

4 Answers 4

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Yes, they did not dislike what you sent them, but they are not ready to hire you at the moment. Move on, and contact them again in maybe 3-6 months if you are still looking for work, to inquire about any newly opened positions.

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You're thinking about this too hard. Take the response for exactly what was said: They don't currently have any jobs available that fit your resume.

The next sentence about keeping your CV on file may or may not be entirely accurate. There's a good chance they do like what you have and will let you know in the future, or they might be saying that to be polite even if they won't consider you, or most likely, they'd be happy to hire you but will forget about you when they actually do have an opening. Definitely check the company's careers page every couple months for openings and reach back out if you see a new junior position.

And don't stress about this - finding a job is hard, especially finding your first job. You will get lots of rejections and deferrals, so just keep searching and applying. Good luck!

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Yes, this is a polite rejection.

This is very routine wording for rejection letters. Don't make too much of the "we'll keep your CV under reference". Don't get your hopes up. Odds are they've already thrown it away, or if they did keep it, they'll never look at it again. I've gotten many rejection letters in my life with similar wording and I don't recall any of them ever calling me back.

Forget it and move on. Apply to other companies. If these folks actually do call you back some time in the future, great. But I wouldn't sit by the phone waiting for their call.

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This is a context where, normally, one would attempt a large number of applications to get more chances of positive replies. So imho don't focus on this one and do not overthink it, keep it up and try with many more.

That being said,

as per your question, there's not really more to their reply than what they strictly said: there's no opening for you at the moment.

The point is that one can't know in advance how long the "at the moment" will last: so my recommendation is to take it as a simple no and keep looking. Should something happen on their side for which you might come in handy, they will be the first to let you know.

All the best and good luck! :)

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