is it ever worth it to respond to rejection emails?

A reader writes:

I’m in the middle of a pretty bleak job search, involving lots of form rejection emails. The first few times I got one, I wrote back a succinct note to the effect of “thank you for letting me know” before realizing how depressing this would be for all of the rejections that would soon start rolling in.

I figure most places don’t care, so I’ve stopped responding to those rejections, but I’m wondering: is it worth ever sending something polite but more personal, hoping that maybe they’d change their mind, or am I living in the job-search equivalent of a 90’s rom-com? “Gosh, we usually get crazy people who yell at us, but this person is so nice and that gosh darn it we should hire her instead!” (Career success, happiness, and extraordinary riches ensue, etc. Sandra Bullock has a cameo.)

They’re very unlikely to change their mind, even if you send an incredibly gracious and personable response back.

That said, there are times when it can make sense to do that anyway. Specifically, if you progressed to the interview stage and seemed to really click with your interviewer, it can be a good investment to send a gracious note thanking them for their time, referencing something valuable you took away from the discussion, and otherwise building on the rapport that you began in the interview. Not because you’re expecting them to change their mind, but because it might solidify you in their head as someone to think of the next time a job opens up that you might be well-matched with (or if you were a top candidate for this one and then their final choice falls through, or they want to refer you to an opening at a partner organization, or so forth).

To be clear, this wouldn’t just be a perfunctory “thanks for letting me know.” This would be a note that builds the connection in some way. (Also, if the form rejection comes from a general hiring email rather than the hiring manager’s own email, don’t just reply to that — send your message directly to the manager so they actually see it.)

It doesn’t make sense to do it if you didn’t progress to the interview stage, since in that case there’s no rapport to build on.

It’s still unlikely to result in anything, particularly a Sandra Bullock appearance, but sometimes job searching is about scattering little seeds around and seeing which ones sprout into something, and this can be one of those seeds.