Good for youI moved back to the UK from abroad as a recent graduate. I had a series of the weirdest job interviews ever it was so disheartening.
One company put me through a series of tasks, an interview, meeting the team, a full tour of the shared office space. Once I'd done all this and 'passed' I got to have an interview with the 'CEO'. He was the biggest gif of all time. The salary was 16k and it was a 40 hour week in the office, but he said you need to be switched on 24/7 and be constantly ready to take work calls, you should do work when you get home too etc. Once you'd worked there for so long and he saw fit, you'd be allowed an hour gym break, he said if you don't use it for the gym and the gym only you lose it. He berated me, and did the standard 'someone from X uni has applied here and they're better than you, why should I bother choosing you?' I shouted at him because that really hit a nerve for me. Then he randomly offered me the job on the spot. I accepted out of awkwardness but in my head I was absolutely fuming. They were all like why aren't you happy you got the jobThey all went off to do something so I just walked out of the building. The girl who showed me around was texting me like aw we couldn't find you where did you go? I didn't even open the message because there was no chance I was ever going back there and then the next day she text me like we've changed our minds you haven't got it, which was so childish and gave off such 'no I dumped you first' vibes it was hysterical.
I think most dodgy organisations call themselves out when you turn up there and see it for real
Yes, definitely yes. It's not an unreasonable question and if they won't even give you the salary range in the initial meeting then I would assume that's because they know it's not a market rate salary or they have something else to hide. If they expect you to go through a long interview process without any idea of what the salary is, they are are not an organisation you want to work for - they have no respect for your time or boundaries.My question is should I just outright ask them in my initial meeting the salary range?
This is so interesting and I think this is the way I'm heading with my interview in January.I was "invited" to interview for a role via LinkedIn. That's never happened before and I honestly thought it was a joke, but when I probed bit further found it is a genuine company and this is how they often recruit.
With that established, I asked the person who sent the invitation to tell me more - what was the role; where was it based; what was the remuneration ... all the usual sort of stuff. To that, he said to wait until the first video meeting as they'd decide at that point if I was what they were looking for. In retrospect, I should've just said "thanks but no thanks" at that point.
The first interview came and went; although the interviewer was a lovely man, he had no idea what role I was being interviewed for (!). So that was a complete waste of time. He said to be patient as there will be the opportunity to ask questions in the next meeting, should I be selected to progress. For the rest of the interview, he just talked about the company culture and confirmed that everyone works from home (so that was at least one of my questions answered). From there, I received an email saying I'd made it through to the next stage, and that they'd be in touch.
Interview #2 was via video link with two women who said we'd be going over my responses to the questions they'd set. Um, WHAT questions?! At this point I was scratching my head (as well as being annoyed that here I was, having yet another waste-of-time interview at 2am my time). They thought it odd that I'd even accepted an invitation to attend the second interview if I didn't know what I was being interviewed for - throwing it all back in my court. I explained to them how things had progressed from my point of view; they just looked at me blankly.
Lo and behold, later that night I received an invitation to attend yet another interview. I promptly declined, along with a message saying what a shambles this whole process had been and how I felt they were just wasting peoples' time. Surprisingly, they responded and said they'd like to talk further about what my salary expectations would be. For a job doing goodness knows what!
Such clowns.
I was reading their Glassdoor reviews the other day and discovered I'm not the only one they approached around this time (many others had exactly the same experience).
So, so strange. (And no, it's not a secret-squirrel agency of some sort ... it's just a regular SaaS business).
That's so weird! Some SaaS companies do seem to make it up as they go along, from my experienceI was "invited" to interview for a role via LinkedIn. That's never happened before and I honestly thought it was a joke, but when I probed bit further found it is a genuine company and this is how they often recruit.
With that established, I asked the person who sent the invitation to tell me more - what was the role; where was it based; what was the remuneration ... all the usual sort of stuff. To that, he said to wait until the first video meeting as they'd decide at that point if I was what they were looking for. In retrospect, I should've just said "thanks but no thanks" at that point.
The first interview came and went; although the interviewer was a lovely man, he had no idea what role I was being interviewed for (!). So that was a complete waste of time. He said to be patient as there will be the opportunity to ask questions in the next meeting, should I be selected to progress. For the rest of the interview, he just talked about the company culture and confirmed that everyone works from home (so that was at least one of my questions answered). From there, I received an email saying I'd made it through to the next stage, and that they'd be in touch.
Interview #2 was via video link with two women who said we'd be going over my responses to the questions they'd set. Um, WHAT questions?! At this point I was scratching my head (as well as being annoyed that here I was, having yet another waste-of-time interview at 2am my time). They thought it odd that I'd even accepted an invitation to attend the second interview if I didn't know what I was being interviewed for - throwing it all back in my court. I explained to them how things had progressed from my point of view; they just looked at me blankly.
Lo and behold, later that night I received an invitation to attend yet another interview. I promptly declined, along with a message saying what a shambles this whole process had been and how I felt they were just wasting peoples' time. Surprisingly, they responded and said they'd like to talk further about what my salary expectations would be. For a job doing goodness knows what!
Such clowns.
I was reading their Glassdoor reviews the other day and discovered I'm not the only one they approached around this time (many others had exactly the same experience).
So, so strange. (And no, it's not a secret-squirrel agency of some sort ... it's just a regular SaaS business).
This is one of the age old problems of job hunting- you are totally at the mercy of recruiters personal prejudices and life ideas. It’s ridiculous.After an initial interview with an internal recruiter I was told I would not be put forward for the first stage interview. Why? She thought my shoes were too expensive and this indicated I wouldn't stay with the company. I was unemployed, on very little money, and the shoes were not exactly Chanel. I certainly told her what I thought of that idea.
An interviewer asked my taste in music (This was a "trendy" PR company with mostly young staff) and then laughed at me when I told him! No, I didn't get the job
Loving this thread, very interesting. I had an interview for a small charity, it was a part time VERY badly paid job, the interview was 3 hours long, on a Sunday, and consisted of about 2 hours of interview questions, conducted by 2 people and then 2 different writing tasks. I got the job but when I started I realised all of us , beside the CEO , were new. It wasn't a new charity, all the previous staff had just quit. I then learned about how high the staff turnover was, it soon became very obvious why. I stayed there less than a year, the lesson learned was that a consistently high staff turnover is a huge red flag.Over the summer a guy on LinkedIn posted about his dismay of having to go through around 5 rounds of interviews, over months to only be snapped up by another company in the meantime.
It seems that companies are starting to really make hiring ridiculous. People are calling it breadcrumbing and then ghosting candidates.
Anyhow fast forward and I'm applying for jobs. I got an email from head of said company asking for an interview in the new year. Great. However I now believe this 'interview' to be an interview for the interview
They sent through their interview process and I'm now really unsure about the company and if their recruitment process is a piss take??? Is it a massive read flag???
Have they just got a shit policies, is this a bad sign?
I've been told after the first interview I need to expect up to 6 interviews plus interviews in between at their discretion.
If I get through all of this I have to have a written test that is between 4 to 10 hours long.
(I went to uni/I studied at Cambridge uni,that's on my CV so I'd like to think this makes the above slightly redundant).
On top of this they have not disclosed the salary and their policy is that they will decide on a salary depending on experience and this is no negotiable. I found the wording quite spikey and aggressive.
Has anyone else had this experience? Some of my friends have had a few too many rounds of interviews but this seems ridiculous? Am I right to be thinking this is a red flag?
PS it's NFP charity.
It really is! I left a company this year that had employed someone to address their high staff turnover. When that person got into the job, the company never took steps to let her help them with high staff turnover. Turns out you can’t decrease staff turnover rate in a toxic work environment!I stayed there less than a year, the lesson learned was that a consistently high staff turnover is a huge red flag.
Fucking patronising bollocks.Can we talk about stupid application questions too? I had one recently asking "if you were a biscuit which biscuit would you be", I mean, how is that relevant to any professional job?
I answered digestive - considered a bit boring maybe, but what you see is what you get. I didn't hear anything from them, so I guess they were looking for more of a hobnob or party ring.
The same application also asked "if you could have any super power what would it be", again pointless and irrelevant.
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