Short guide to sending messages to sets of applicants
- If you are sending rejection messages and have already marked as "Rejected" the applicants whom you want to notify, before you start use the checkboxes on the page to display only those applicants. (If you have not yet marked applicants as "Rejected", that's fine — the system will do it for you when you send the messages.)
- Click on the Send messages button on the page of applications for a position.
- Check the Test? box. That will cause the message you create to be sent to your email address when you click the Send button.
- Choose the type of your message. If you choose "Rejection", then (a) messages will be sent only for application for which you have previously not sent a rejection message and (b) the status of every application for which a message is sent will be changed to "Rejected" when the message is sent.
- Enter a subject and a body and optionally modify the suggested signature. The messages will be sent from an unmonitored mailbox, so you should include your email address in case applicants want to get in touch with you. (We cannot include your address as a "reply-to" address, because if we do so many mail systems will classify the message as spam.)
- In the body of the message you can use the variables {{ $applicantFirstName }}, {{ $applicantLastName }}, and {{ $applicantFullName }}. These variables will be replaced with the appropriate values when the message is sent. You can put the variable where you like in the message; for example, you can, if you are feeling old-fashioned, precede the recipient's name by "Dear" or something similar.
- The body of the message will be interpreted as Markdown code. That means that if, for example, you type *some words* then the string "some words" will appear in italics in the message, and if you type **some words** then you will get boldface. You can probably guess what will happen if you type ***some words***.
- The subject or body of your message should mention the title of the position and the name of your organization, otherwise the recipient may have a hard time figuring out what the rejection is for.
- Click the Send button.
- Check your email inbox to see what the message looks like.
- If the message looks good, select the applicants to whom you want to send it, check that everything looks good, and click the Send button. When you do so, the message will be queued for sending. It will be sent within an hour. (The messages are not sent immediately because sending them may take a while, and you probably don't want to sit there with the system tied up while they are being sent.)
- When the messages are sent, you will be able to view them by clicking the link "Messages sent to applicants for this position" under the title of the panel.