>> They send you a message via LinkedIn or email out of the blue, offering you one or several (great) job opportunities and asking you to set a day and time for the interview.
>> The day comes. You've done your homework and prepared yourself with questions for the position.
>> The interview starts with them telling you they have no idea who you are and asking you to refresh their memory (or something similar).
>> You answer truthfully and relay the same information they gave you via email.
>> They tell you the position is very sought after and/or that it's (almost) covered and they are no longer looking for people to fill the position they offered you.
>> They offer you a worse alternative or freelance work. If you insist on asking questions or talking about the initial offer, they don't even ask you how much you want. They immediately drop the lowest salary number you can think of and basically say the position comes with zero benefits.
>> They tell you they'll consider you if the position they offered you initially opens again.
This or something similar has happened to me more than once. I'm still sobbing because today it was particularly nasty.
Last Friday (on my birthday, no less), the editorial director of a publisher sent me an email in the afternoon offering me three very interesting job opportunities and making his interest in my professional profile explicit. He explained the company was growing rapidly and name-dropped big clients from a country with a stronger currency than ours (I live in a third-world country). At the last possible moment, at 5:50 pm that same Friday (I was almost ready to start celebrating my birthday with my loved ones), he arranged an interview with me for Monday morning (today, some hours ago).
The events played out exactly how I described previously. What's more, he arrived late. I didn't get to ask almost any of the questions I wanted to. He avoided the few I got to ask and even went so far as to say the full-time project he initially offered me was “too technical for [him] to explain now”.
I felt like shit. He made me feel like he was doing charity work by giving me 20 minutes of his time, offering me to do some freelance tasks, and saying I'd be considered in the future if the positions he offered me initially opened again.
This is also how I got my first job. A shitty offer made to look like it was golden, but I was really desperate and in dire need of money and work experience. After some months there, I got a managerial position at that company but ended up needing more than half a year of therapy to gather the courage to start applying to jobs once I quit. Soul-sucking stuff.
What do you think? Is this common?