Currently having a beer at the nearest bar as I type this. I just walked out of an interview for the first time. I’m 37F and have spent a lot of time as an independent contractor so I have been through my fair share of interviews.
About 2 weeks ago I received a text from a rep for a marketing company saying they received my resume and would like to schedule an interview. Two red flags came up: 1) that I was receiving a text instead of email which felt really scammy 2) I never sent them my info. I looked up the company and does look like they seem legit or at least have an office.
This rep was being very persistent in reaching out and I haven’t lined up any interviews lately so I figure what the hell. I ask the rep for more clarity on the role and for a job description document. I’m met with a very vague (text) answer about seeing if it’s a mutual fit. Again, no other interviews lined up so I figure what the hell.
Their office is a 1 hour drive from me, but I still figure I should see if this is an opportunity.
When I walked into the office it was a total ghost town. Someone greets me and immediately asks if I brought my resume. People. No one has printers anymore. I don’t even know what version of my resume I sent you. This is a professional office right? Surely the woman who texted me relentlessly gave you my resume? Nope. She is a recruiter that doesn’t even work in their office. Even tho her email signature says she is HR for the company. I have been to many interviews lately and sure it’s never a bad idea to have your resume on hand, but my last few interviews they simply printed it themselves so they could actually read and review it. It became abundantly clear that they had not even looked at my resume.
I’m an event coordinator professionally. So after giving me the whole speel about how everyone starts on entry level and works up to management level through “training and performance” he then drops the bomb that I would be getting paid by commission. I’m sure he felt my mood switch. He then suggests that I go check out one of the events they currently have a “manager” set up at. I drove 40 min to this second location.
Ya’ll. It was a couple of girls under a tiny umbrella in a hot ass asphalt parking lot basically heckling people as they came out of a little bar on a rough side of town. The “manager” I was supposed to meet with immediately goes into power flex mode and does my absolute pet peeve: when people talk to adults like children. For instance, she said “We follow an acronym called SEE that represents all the things ‘we do and don’t say’. What do you think the S stands for???” She loved to milk it and make me guess a few times while telling me “Im so close to the answer.” And this went on for every letter and then she starts another acronym and this continues. FFS.
I check my phone at one point and she snidely asks, “is there somewhere you need to be?” I finally hit my shit roof and I stopped her and said “I can’t do this. i don’t think this is for me.” She basically looked at me with total shock and stuttered over a combination of what/why. So then I asked her why is she talking me like a kid at summercamp, and told her to talk to me like a person. She proceeds to say this is their procedure and that “we are getting there”. As I am explaining I’m interviewing them too and I’d like to ask some questions before proceeding because I have no idea if I want to do this. Again she says “we’re getting there” and I basically said “nah we’re not cause I’m leaving.” She says okay and of course pulls a petty “Good luck on your job search!” As I was walking away the anger hit me for how unprofessional the whole situation was and how they wasted so much of my time. So as I walked to my car I called them fucking crazy and unprofessional time-wasters. Probably could have left off the first part but I was heated in that moment.
Feeling pretty good only wish I left sooner. I don’t have anyone else to vent to so I came to Reddit. Thanks for reading if you made it this far in the post!