Woman says sending meme response to job rejection email got her an interview
A woman revealed how she landed a job interview by sending a meme to the hiring manager, who had initially rejected her from the position.
In a clip posted to TikTok, @swedishswan detailed how she’s been applying to various jobs lately and had just received a rejection letter.
After sharing how much she had wanted the job, she said that she “took a lesson from Gen Z” and decided to follow-up with the employer by sending a popular meme.
The meme she chose featured a painting of Pope Leo X by Fernando Botero from 1964, with the phrase “y tho” written in white letters.
According to @swedishswan, the meme was successful. Shortly after the meme was sent, the employer reached out to her to say that they changed their minds.
“Anyway, it worked,” she said. “They sent me another email saying that they do in fact now want to interview me. I can’t believe that worked.”
As of 18 July, the video has more than 1.8m views. Many TikTok users in the comments said that if they had been the employer who received that meme, they too would have responded with an interview request.
“As a recruiter, if someone sent that to me I would ABSOLUTELY want an interview,” one wrote.
“As a recruiter if someone sent this to me, I’d try to find you another position,” another said.
Other people praised Generation Z for popularizing this sort of behavior.
“Gen Z are wizards of life,” one wrote, while another said: “Gen Z has mastered how to [’I don’t give a f*** way’] their way to success...It’s like magic to me I can’t fathom how they got these guts.”
A third user added: “Responding to a rejection email was literally how I got my job now...I kept thinking: what are they gonna do, NOT hire me MORE?”
This isn’t the first time that this specific meme has been sent to hiring teams in an attempt to nab a job. In March, @samantha_jane_ shared a TikTok video of an email that her sister Hannah received while working as a recruiter.
According to @samantha_jane_, after Hannah told a job applicant that they didn’t get the job, they responded with the meme of Pope Leo X. The TikTok creator then described the meme as the “most Gen Z thing” she has ever seen.
The Independent has contacted @swedishswan for comment.
