SINGAPORE: After surviving a four-round gauntlet of technical interviews for a coveted tech role, a Singaporean jobseeker was hit with the worst kind of plot twist: a friendly rejection—and the all-too-familiar “keep in touch.”
Sharing on Reddit’s r/askSingapore, the frustrated jobseeker wrote: “I just went through a brutal 4-round interview process for a tech job and just got the rejection call today. The hiring manager was nice about it, said I was great, but they went with another candidate after the peer manager technical round. Then he specifically said I should keep in touch because they expect to have new openings on the team in about six months.”
Their parting phrase, “keep in touch,” sounds hopeful enough, but is it really a real second chance… or just another dressed-up version of “it’s not you, it’s us”?
“Move on…”
Fellow Singaporeans in the forum didn’t sugarcoat the situation. One replied: “Move on. 6 months is too long. You never know when a headcount freeze or layoff may kick in, given the current job market.”
Another shared a glimmer of hope from his own experience: “They gave me the standard ‘we’ll keep you in mind’ response… and a few months later, they actually called me back. I got the job and stayed for 3 years. So yeah, there is a chance. If you’ve gone through 4 rounds and lost out on a technicality, you can bet they’ll keep you in mind.”
One even had a recruiter circle back two years later: “I guess she still remembered me because I really just lost out by a thin margin.”
Still, most agree that whether it’s genuine or not, there’s no point waiting around with crossed fingers. “Whether it’s a genuine heads-up or polite rejection, at this juncture, there’s nothing you can do about it, so might as well continue your efforts elsewhere.”
