Hi All,

I feel so silly writing this but I have been trying to decode this email for HOURS!

I spent the last three months interviewing for an internal role at my company. I’m currently in a post-grad “pipeline” position that often leads to people working on different teams.

I was super excited to work for this specific team and had an amazing interview process. Truthfully, the final interview I had with who would have been my manager, was the best interview I have ever had.

I found out Friday I did not get the role through my HR Team. It was instead offered to a candidate with 3 years experience and a Masters degree…which makes sense considering I don’t even quite have a year yet!

The senior management who would have been my direct report emailed me today with essentially the following: “Hi X, I heard you found out about the decision the team took. I want to make sure you know you were a very competitive candidate, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you. If you have any questions about how the decision was made, I’m happy to answer them. Please keep up your search for your next role. I’m confident you’ll find it.”

I followed up and thanked them, as well. I let them know that while disappointed, I’m still happy they found someone so awesome for this role! That I don’t need any sort of explanation, but I’m happy for any feedback so I can grow and improve for next time. I re-expressed my interest in this specific team and offered my help on a project-basis if ever needed (pretty common in my role).

I feel a little silly, especially if their email wasn’t intended as a way to keep in touch, but more so as a “sorry, try a different team!”

I know no one here can jump into their mind, but…how do I even interpret this?!