Apparently the folks at Twitter are a little too used to sharing. At around 11 AM this morning the company sent out a rejection notice to many of the candidates who had applied for its open Product Manager position. But instead of using BCC to hide the identities of the applicants from each other, Twitter HR goofed and sent them all the message using a standard Carbon Copy, allowing everyone else to see who the other 185 applicants were.
Here’s the message each person got, along with the list of other recipients:
Hi,
Thank you so much for taking the time to apply for the Business
Product Manager position at Twitter, Inc. During the course of our
recruiting efforts, we come across many fine candidates such as you,
and we carefully evaluate each candidate’s background and interests
against our projected workloads and staffing needs. Although we are
impressed with your background, the hiring committee has decided to
move forward with a different candidate.We will keep your information on file for six months in case future
opportunities arise.
Twitter isn’t the first company to mix up the BCC and CC fields. RockYou has made similar mistakes in the past, repeatedly CCing a full list of its advertisers and developers for all to see (much to their chagrin). But Twitter’s blunder could potentially have a negative impact on some of these applicants who may already be employed elsewhere.
Craig Given, who was one of the applicants, has blogged about the message, and also includes a response that CEO Evan Williams has sent to all the affected applicants. Note that Williams says that not everyone on the list even applied for the job:
It has just been brought to my attention that we just sent this note about this job with everyone’s address exposed in the cc line.
This is obviously a big mistake, and I sincerely apologize on behalf of Krissy, myself, and Twitter, Inc. We really appreciate you expressing interest in Twitter, and I can only imagine that this type of move adds insult to injury.
To be clear: Not everyone on this list even applied for this job. Some were recommended to us and entered into our applicant tracking system by employees here.
Whatever the case, I regret this mistake. Please help us reduce the impact of this error by respecting each other’s privacy.
If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know.
Evan
Looks like someone in Twitter HR needs an email 101 class.
Amateur hour at Twitter is apparently not (or is no longer) over.
It was obviously a mistake that some poor soul in HR will regret forever and will most likely never make again.
I must say that given the circumstance, Craig’s note was as smooth as response as possible. Obviously, its probably not true, but it does give anyone facing a stern meeting with his/her boss some air cover.
Anjali Sen
When will you stop your cheap attempt in spam posting?
@R I agree with that comment, she posts on EVERY single TechCrunch article, and has the “best” opinion out of everyone in the world. LOL.
The lord will condemn them.
I hope Twitter will completely FAIL !!
I wish them the worst. Stupid dikks.
or simply don’t let that intern do the rejection letters ever again.
“To be clear: Not everyone on this list even applied for this job. Some were recommended to us and entered into our applicant tracking system by employees here.”
Nice cover story Evan, but we all know it’s total B.S.
agreed 100%…its a cover for anyone that may be currently employed and now on the hot seat. Which I guess is a good move by Ev.
Twitter is a class act.
I think they are generally a class act and this was just an honest mistake (unlike the RockYou case which has happened a few times).
I have applied for work with Twitter, and their process has been outstanding. Krissy does a great job, and deserves support rather than negativity. Unfortunately, with technology, some mistakes have big implications. But from my interactions with Twitter, this isn’t indicative of how they run their company, or how they treat people.
and you have been passed on in their ATS system and exposed to anyone that will buy your CV as a credit…. sweet.
“If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know.
Evan”
My response might be:
Yeah… how about that job I inquired about?
This is funny and ironical!
“To be clear: Not everyone on this list even applied for this job. Some were recommended to us and entered into our applicant tracking system by employees here.”
Really? Since when did twitter employees start recommending people who did not wish to join twitter?
since they use JobScore
Feel free to criticize them for this mistake–as long as you’ve never made a stupid mistake before yourself.
Me? Well, I’ve been there, done that.. it happens to the best of us.
OK, I’ll bite. In 15 years of email I have never made this mistake at work.
You only have to make the mistake once, and you are all over the internets.
Yeah, I guess since you’ve never made that one particular mistake out of all the hundreds of other mistakes you’ve made in the past, you’re a better person for it.
Everyone makes mistakes and there is no need to crucify the person for this obviously unintentional blunder.
You’re a cock, how’s that?
I apply for job and not get notice. Do this mean I am hired?
No. This means you got a separate rejection notice in your own language.
pure gold
Where’s the digg button?
+1 internets
This isn’t exactly news. It’s an error obviously.
you’re right but it’s about twitter! the next step is to inform us whenever someone from twitter farts
now you know who wants to work for twitter.
twitter growth is amazing…
Thanks for the insight, Facebook user.
This is not the first time something big like this happens. Remember the ruby on rails 400 email mistake?
sbemem@gmail.com
Could have been worse, least it wasn’t a personal email CC’d to all applicants “tell these loosers…”
“To be clear: Not everyone on this list even applied for this job. Some were recommended to us and entered into our applicant tracking system by employees here.”
Nice way to cover for people if the list got out – your boss might see it somehow and go “hmmmmmm….”
Actually, wouldn’t your boss say “I didn’t know you were applying there too?”
Jason, is TechCrunch devolving into gotcha central?
We already have gossip rags.
How about an email to TWHQ, and expect the favor returned by them one day?
So that’s what BCC is for, huh?
wow, such an interesting story about twitter, who would have expected it? i m thrilled!!!!
I hope nobody on the list is currently employed and was looking for a new job. The current employer might not be too happy.
Hi can we see the list of recipients?
let’s see the list of recipients
You posted twice. Really want to see that list, eh? Must be sure your whole staff is ready to jump ship on you.. I’m fairly sure they are, too.
Busch League
I agree with Ed. This article was posted in very poor taste. TechCrunch slipped a notch in my book to tastelessly exploit a simple mistake.
twitter gets so much press that this for me is a clear accident on their part. it doesnt come off as intentional like the rockyou crap.
I bet Krissy cried when she realized what she did.
LewisC
Wow! This is exclusive and exciting Tech News.
What upcoming Twitter Soundbites do you have planned for us in the next few days.
The suspense is killing me!
Its the Bay Area. There is low concept of loyalty. Everyone is constantly looking for the next company to work for anyway…
Yep, not to proud to admit I was among the rejected. Thanks for making rejection fun, Twitter!
Wow…..
I am just curious why this was worth a TechCrunch post. It doesn’t seem worthy…
It’s very annoying that I got dozens of emails that i don’t want to receive.
why don’t you publish the list of recipients? that would be awesome.
so now these candidates started to ask a favor from other candidates to get a job…are you kidding me?
I was on the email and replied directly to let her know what happened — little did I know it would so quickly become public! I’m new to the Bay Area and still navigating the industry, so if anyone knows of senior-level roles related to Online Advertising Platforms or Ecommerce Product Management please shoot me a line! craig.tw@craigberlingo.com
My experience here: http://craigber....com/resume-doc
First step should be converting your resume .doc into a PDF. That would make you look a lot more intelligent than you obviously are.
Actually, most recruitment agencies still don’t support automatic processing of PDF format and will often ask you to re-send in .doc format. However, I think it’s pretty cool that you would call someone an idiot on the Internet, when they’re trying to promote themselves to get work. Nice one.
It is WRONG and UNETHICAL to even publish this as news. This post is WORSE than the initial mistake because it is intentional.
Not every mistake needs to be pointed out.
Uh, how is it wrong and unethical to report on this? I mean it’s not blockbuster news, but this mistake has possibly negative implications for some of the currently employed applicants, and is definitely noteworthy for an increasingly high-profile company like Twitter.
They should have just @replied to everyone like:
@mvolpe – dude, sorry you did not get the job. good luck, @ev
Is there any story about twitter you won’t write about.
YAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whew! Glad I didn’t apply!
I was on this list!
we all humans and we all make mistakes, Even if the mail was sent to all the candidates so what the world is not coming to end.
Come on guys/gals get a life, Don’t we have anything else to brag. Think Big, we have bigger problems around us.
I didn’t apply but is it a big deal even if you get rejected ? Many folks got rejected at many places like Google, Apple, Facebook and the list goes but we all know not every one who works at these places are smart.
Ex. Many smart VC’s rejected PIXAR when it was looking for funding. What happened to PIXAR we all know. Working at these companies doesn’t make anyone smarter but rather these companies steal your ideas and become big.
If you think you have the determination then do things on your own you will more successful than giving your ideas to these companies for pretty garbage flat checks.
They should just twitter all the names of people who didn’t get the position.
oops! confidentiality and privacy goes out the window. Nice job Twitter!
Mistakes occur. But, checks and balances for such procedures are fundamental.
Aw…… PUBLIC BURN BY TWITTER!
@ev where’s the tact, bro?
In days BSM (before social media), employers mailed rejection letters to each applicant. It wasn’t rocket science then and it’s not now. It’s good HR policy. Twitter could DM applicants if the idea of snail mail is scary, but individuals should be communicated with individually.
When a PR person takes a short cut and does an email blast to their contacts, they’re paraded into the market square and put in the stockade.
It’s cool and jazzy to be “Krissy” in HR at Twitter, but most good processes are neither cool nor jazzy. They just make things work. Not everything needs to be done 2.0 style.
(p.s. the legal ramifications of mistakes in HR are no joking matter.)
We all make mistakes, and I don’t think its appropriate to bash out on a mistake like this.
I was on the RockYou list and thought it was hilarious.
Mistakes happen.
EV and Twitter handled this as best they could. Gret job.
Why did they use email? Figured they would’ve just tweeted all the losers.
This would not happen if they could send it through their own Twitter account
I wrote this up on my blog as one of the 186….Pretty interesting sequence of events in terms of startup HR and PR growing pains…
http://benkoo.c...ing-a-real-job/
Cool, will go read that now.
Yo, to anyone at Google with 20% time on their hands. New GMail Labs project – a warning whenever you try and send an email out to a more than a handful of people all at the same time.
And while your at it, a 1 min delay on sending mail so that when your press send and instantly realise what you did you can stop it!
I like your ideas even if they are options you can turn on and off or adjust I would surely use.