Turns out the guy who would have been my boss fucking quit the same day I was supposed to get an offer. This was for a Motion designer job for a big Edtech company. $60,000 – $65,000/year salary, fully benefitted, and remote. I really wanted this job.
Three weeks of interviews. Aced every single one. I even made an animation for them for free, making a custom social ad for their brand, and shared all the project files them so they could see how I work. On Friday they said “We'd reach a decision by early next week”. On Monday, I heard nothing. On Tuesday the recruiter emails me “Just checking in, we'll have a decision if not late today, early tomorrow”. At 4:30pm on Wednesday the Recruiter calls me and says “In true startup fashion the position that we had for you is no longer available due to a corporate restructuring”. The boss of the marketing department quit, after being with the company for six months, on the same day I was supposed to get the offer. What kind of bait and switch is that? They've been hiring people for months. That means the boss who interviewed me was looking for other opportunities AS HE WAS INTERVIEWING NEW CANDIDATES. I didn't even seek out this job, the recruiter reached out to me personally on Linkedin. All that just to tell me after all the interviewing and wasting of my time that the position doesn't exist anymore because the boss fucking quit?! Why is that my problem?
Im so mad I looked up legal recourse. There is something called “Fraudulent Inducement of Employment” which can only really work in a court of law if I had an offer in writing that they then renege on. So technically this company didn't break the law. They just did a really shitty thing.
For god's sakes I've been looking for a Motion Designer job for over a year. More than 300 job applications.
Maybe this is time for a career change. Job hunting is dehumanizing. This kind of fickle treatment is an injustice. Are all designer jobs like this? Why would a company do someone dirty like this? Maybe this is a sign of some worser issues that are stemming from within the company.