Hi Stefan,

>I prefer getting honest answers over polite ones.

What we're trying to say here is that the response should have been BOTH honest AND polite.

"Your qualifications do not match our criterion for this position" says EXACTLY THE SAME THING as "get lost, you're not local, you didn't read our request very closely and we don't like your resume". Both are honest -- only ONE is polite and professional, which is how companies who REALLY want to hire someone should respond, regardless of their --personal-- reactions to an applicant's qualifications/tactics.

NO job applicant deserves to be insulted for submitting their qualifications in response to ANY position, regardless of the fitness (or lack thereof) of those qualifications for the position.

Something tells me that, had they used the first line rather than the second, we'd never have even heard from Steve regarding this issue.