I applied for a job as a customer service representative for a marketing company and a few days later I got a phone call from the company to set up an interview. The lady, who I assumed was a recruiter or hiring manager said they do a lot of work with nonprofits and environmental groups, but not exactly what. We set up an interview on Zoom and she said “I’ll see you then”, so I assumed I would be interviewing with her.
I’m looking up the company, which in the name says it’s a marketing company, but their website really doesn’t explain anything they do besides saying they “connect communities to nonprofits”, and a whole bunch of filler words about how they “make a better tomorrow” and whatnot. I thought this was odd but I could have my questions answered in the interview.
A few days later, I get on the Zoom interview, and it’s me and three other people. One man introduces himself as the CEO. I already think that’s a little weird, it must be a super small company then. Right after that, I figure out that he is interviewing all three of us at the same time, asking each person what their hobbies are, I assume to break the ice. The recruiter DID NOT mention that this would be a group interview. I was really taken off guard.
He then asks everybody the same questions, going back and forth to hear all of our answers. Specifically, he asked if we would rather go into a sales or management job in the company. But I applied for a job as a customer service rep. So again, I was confused but I just went with it. After about 15 minutes the man wrapped up the interview and said they would be in touch for a possible second, in-person interview. The zoom call then ended abruptly, before I could ask any of the questions I had prepared.
A few hours later I got an email from the initial recruiter who said they are going with a different candidate. The email was super generic and clearly written by ChatGPT if you had typed in the prompt: “write a polite apology email to somebody who interviewed for XXX Company but is not getting the job”.
I got a lot of red flags and I think I might’ve dodged a bullet.