Ok lets not even consider the fact that this place was far away, I didn't know where it was, the weather was crazy for driving(fog, heavy rain to the point of not seeing the cars or road signs around me)... Lets just talk about the interview... or lack there of.
It starts with me getting there early. I had no idea how long it'd take to get there, google said 30-50 min depending on traffic. There was no traffic, and I got there 30 min early. I decided to review some interview question practice stuff before i went in to just calm my nerves. Then still 20min before the interview I enter the building and look for the office. This was a huge building where lots of businesses are, and the first thing that happens is I enter, and the whole place feels dead. 7 out of the 8 doors I could see that led to businesses look closed. The whole building felt creepy, the lighting was poor, and there was so freaky UPS dude outside the building... he looks really suspicious and he just stared at me. Anyway, no surprise the place i had my interview at is also not open. Since it's early I figure I'll just wait till someone comes. I sit there waiting for 40min. I tried calling the person who scheduled the interview and was sent straight to voicemail. I decided waiting 20min after the start of the interview was enough, left a note on the door, and realized I was going to ask them the best way to drive home... since my phone is a piece of crap and I don't have GPS... yay now I can't drive home in crazy fog and rain, without knowing how to get home.
What I want to know though, is who schedules an interview, actually bothers to write it down, give you the info, and then not show up? Seriously, if you didn't want to interview me, you could have not scheduled in the first place or you could have... oh I don't know, canceled! Save me the drive, the 2 hrs of my life I'll never get back from driving and waiting, the additional time it takes to write this stupid rage post.. among other things.
That's really frustrating - guess you won't be working for them, huh? Who'd want to put up with that nonsense anyway. At least you got a real glimpse at what you were interviewing for: people who don't care. Did they offer you any explanation as to what happened? Or try to make amends/reschedule/apologize?
ReplyDeleteWhat infuriates me is when you send in a whole application (resume, cover letter, statement of interest, writing sample, etc.), and never hear back. It's like - really? You can't send me a letter at least noting you received my materials? Or saying your positions are filled? Just give me the time of day, please. You can send something generic - just let me know WHAT is going on! I applied for a firm back in ... oh, September? I just received a letter dated January 11, 2011 - stating their positions have been filled. While it's great to actually RECEIVE a letter (so many firms just don't bother contacting you), what happened to being punctual? I figured I didn't get the job when I never heard back for an interview, but I'm glad they at LEAST took the time to formally acknolwedge my application and let me know they filled their positions.
Bah. Getting no response at all is worse than receiving a rejection letter 4-5 months after you apply.
PS - I just remembered another interview "horror" story. A friend of mine was chosen for a "top firm" interview - and they basically spent the interview telling her that she should be grateful they picked her at all because they're so prestigious. My friend basically walked out of the interview going "if this is any indication of how the office environment/attitude is, no thanks." (... Thought that was really balls-y and awesome of her to do! Slap in the face to this pompous firm, as they were really looking to hire her. She's too awesome for a crappy work environment anyway.)
- FRITA :-)
(Tried to post this comment before, but it didn't work ... Here's hoping it goes through!)
I haven't heard anything from them. And I definitely have no interest in working for them at all anymore.
ReplyDeleteSince moving here I've applied to like 50 entry-level non-teaching positions, I'm sure having a masters made me overqualified for some jobs, and having only been a RA outside of teaching(atleast listed on my resume) didn't help me get the other positions, but like you said, knowing they received my application even be it with an automated email reply), would have been nice. I applied mostly online, i had to sign up on people websites too, you'd think it'd send an automatic "got your application", but no. I only heard back from 2 people and of those 2, neither actually replied to say no. It's rough, half the time I'm not even sure if they got my application.
I wonder if I should just go back into teaching even though I hate it, they're the only people that actually all back...