A Tale of 'Merica and Milk - I just walked out and abandoned a job interview. FML.

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Telephoto999

Member
GAF,

I am sure some of you are well aware of the employment troubles I've posted about and talked about on here before. Well I thought things might turn around today.... and boy was I wrong. Monday evening around 7 o clock I was scouring a craigslist and saw an ad for a senior level IT position with a managed services company here in Atlanta. I sent over my resume and a small cover letter. At 9 am Tuesday morning I was contacted by the owner of the company and we exchanged a few emails and set up a phone interview for 4. At 4 I contacted him and we talked about 20 minutes and it went very well. He invited me up for an interview today at 3 at his office across town.

Today I get extremely excited and prep for the interview. I leave early and drive 45 minutes across town to his office and get there at 2:45. Immediately the receptionist has me fill out a formal application and take a small written technical test regarding my skillset. I completed this by 3 and turned it back into the receptionist and began making small talk. At 3:05 I heard the owner come out of his office and finalize his interview with another candidate. The candidate then left and I sat waiting in the front area. At 3:15 the owner came out of his office and directed 2 of his technicians to follow up on an issue they were working on previously. At 3:20 I heard him start a phone call. At 3:30 he hung up. At 3:35 he began another phone call.

During this time I continued to make small talk with the receptionist. I asked the question "Do you know if this position is an expansion or if I would be replacing a position?". She stated that unfortunately they had two techs leave late the previous week unexpectedly and that he was looking to hire multiple people.

Fast forward to 3:45 or so and I stood up... picked up my resume and materials and informed the receptionist that I would be leaving and that I enjoyed our conversation. She looked perplexed but said okay.

At 3:50 I get an email from the owner saying "I'm expecting to interview you today - are you coming back?" as the subject line with no body in the email.

GAF.. .am I totally out of line in this? I need a job... but I can't help but feel how extremely unprofessional this was... and a complete waste of my time. He had multiple opportunities to come out... introduce himself and communicate with me that he was running behind but that he would get to me shortly. I feel as if my time was unvalued... and completely wasted. I feel like this was a good enough red flag and warning sign to show that I wouldn't have wanted this job anyway.

Input?
 
Fuck that asshole. He told you a time and never came out to say he apologizes for the delay.

If he doesn't treat potential employees well how do you think he treats actual employees



But, go back since you need a job
 
So you didn't ask what the reason was for the delay before walking out? I'd go back there, especially given how badly it sounds you need a job. It sounds like he just got busy.
 
Well, you should have waited and given them the benefit of the doubt before withdrawing, but it does sound like a sketchy situation and maybe your gut was right. Hard to say.
 
That was certainly rude but I probably would've at least asked the secretary if she knew when you'd be getting in to see the owner instead of just leaving.
 
Maybe I'm missing something but just throwing it out there, did you follow up with him after he sent the invite to a 3PM interview? No reply? No "That's a great time for me. I'll be there" response?

Some people can get caught up with their day to day and forget about things. I think it would have been a good idea to send a confirmation email beforehand so that they will remember.

Hell, I would have sent him an email about it while I was there through my phone.
 
If you badly need a job, take what you can get. You can keep looking for another even if you're hired.
 
If you feel odd about it, you can invite him to reschedule. Accomplishes the same thing (you're not likely to work there), but it's a little more elegant. Personally I wait about 30 minutes for meetings, so I think you did fine leaving.
 
Can you really afford to be so stuck up? For fuck sakes man. :'(
At the very least, you should have taken the job and continued looking elsewhere with the added security.
 
I would have at least stayed for the interview. Sure, the behavior was kind of unprofessional on his part, but it's possible that he's really trying hard to put out fires (especially since you said that people had just left recently).
 
Same thing happened to me at my first day of work once. I showed up at the scheduled time for training, waited in the lobby for my trainer as I was instructed. As time went by I asked multiple people where the trainer was, all saying "he's coming" Two hours later I got my shit and left.
 
You should've asked him directly instead of going away. What was the point of leaving? If you had confronted him nothing worse could've happened. Either way the worst thing is you didn't get the job. But by confronting him there is a chance of getting the job.
 
I worked for a year for a person that expressed this casual sort of disregard, disrespect, and borderline disdain for those not deemed important enough to warrant her attention... it's not worth it unless you are truly desperate.
 
Did you have anything particularly time sensitive happening at the time?

If you left simply because you were bored waiting, you probably didn't make the right choice.

The owner should have at least given you some sort of signal to acknowledge your presence, but if you had really wanted the job you should have stayed.
 
upper management can become busy with day to day obligations

head back, don't make a fuss over any of it

the day doesn't end for some people until 6, so leaving at 3:45 is just odd
 
Unless you are totally hurting for money, you probably did the right thing. He sounds like an ass to work for. Even if you had been hired, you would've left after working under that guy.

Still, money keeps the gears rolling.
 
it is a sign that they're disorganized and unprofessional. and maybe that your time isn't as valuable and that they're seeing things in terms of a buyer's market. How desperate are you is the question.

Plus they didn't apologize for the missed appointment, they just said "I expected you to be here when I was ready." Which is also a bad sign.
 
How do you know it wasn't the receptionists fault?

Perhaps she didn't properly inform him you were waiting. It's not like the guy knows what you look like.

You made a mistake, and honestly need to do some soul searching if waiting for less than an hour causes you to bail on a job interview when you are having employment troubles.
 
If you badly need a job and that job was in line with what your career path is, you done fucked up. Have some patiences, people can be extremely busy even if they don't plan for it.

Really the only thing I can imagine that could get you back into their good graces would be to claim you had another interview you couldn't miss or some sort of emergency. Surprised they even bothered to email you after you walked out.
 
People get busy and sometimes fires happen at work. It sucks he got busy and was held up doing something, but you should have checked in with the receptionist and asked how much longer it should have been.
 
Letterbomb said:
Can you really afford to be so stuck up? For fuck sakes man. :'(
At the very least, you should have taken the job and continued looking elsewhere with the added security.
Click to expand...

This.

I can't "afford" it... but at the same time I honestly don't want to take a position I know I would immediately be looking to bail on anyway. The first red flag was when she said two techs had left the previous week unannounced. This was a small company of 8 people and the position paid very well, stated salaries up to the mid 70k depending on experience. While I never asked about the delay some other red flags came up such as the receptionist stating how overworked she felt and how her role actually handles.

It felt like a really sketchy situation with how rushed the hiring process was to begin with... but then for this to happen it just made me want to bail out.
 
I wouldn't say "out of line", but I do think you could have handled it better. You could have asked if this was an inconvenient time (they might have had some emergency production problem, who knows?) and if you could reschedule to a better time for them.

It looks like you don't need a/this job that badly (I don't know your circumstances).
 
Thacker said:
GAF,

I am sure some of you are well aware of the employment troubles I've posted about and talked about on here before. Well I thought things might turn around today.... and boy was I wrong. Monday evening around 7 o clock I was scouring a craigslist and saw an ad for a senior level IT position with a managed services company here in Atlanta. I sent over my resume and a small cover letter. At 9 am Tuesday morning I was contacted by the owner of the company and we exchanged a few emails and set up a phone interview for 4. At 4 I contacted him and we talked about 20 minutes and it went very well. He invited me up for an interview today at 3 at his office across town.

Today I get extremely excited and prep for the interview. I leave early and drive 45 minutes across town to his office and get there at 2:45. Immediately the receptionist has me fill out a formal application and take a small written technical test regarding my skillset. I completed this by 3 and turned it back into the receptionist and began making small talk. At 3:05 I heard the owner come out of his office and finalize his interview with another candidate. The candidate then left and I sat waiting in the front area. At 3:15 the owner came out of his office and directed 2 of his technicians to follow up on an issue they were working on previously. At 3:20 I heard him start a phone call. At 3:30 he hung up. At 3:35 he began another phone call.

During this time I continued to make small talk with the receptionist. I asked the question "Do you know if this position is an expansion or if I would be replacing a position?". She stated that unfortunately they had two techs leave late the previous week unexpectedly and that he was looking to hire multiple people.

Fast forward to 3:45 or so and I stood up... picked up my resume and materials and informed the receptionist that I would be leaving and that I enjoyed our conversation. She looked perplexed but said okay.

At 3:50 I get an email from the owner saying "I'm expecting to interview you today - are you coming back?" as the subject line with no body in the email.

GAF.. .am I totally out of line in this? I need a job... but I can't help but feel how extremely unprofessional this was... and a complete waste of my time. He had multiple opportunities to come out... introduce himself and communicate with me that he was running behind but that he would get to me shortly. I feel as if my time was unvalued... and completely wasted. I feel like this was a good enough red flag and warning sign to show that I wouldn't have wanted this job anyway.

Input?
Click to expand...

Thacker
Member
(Today, 04:59 PM)

You waited an hour to ask this question?
 
One hour is my typical Ask-about-the-delay cutoff time.
Despite it indeed being unprofessional to have you waiting without an explanation, I would have held out.
 
marrec said:
Uhhh...

Yes, you were unprofessional to walk out on the scheduled interview.
Click to expand...

Even if the interview was at 3, I got there at 2:45 and still had not spoken with the owner by 3:45 while I heard him make multiple phone calls and give various directions to two of his current techs?
 
Thacker said:
This.

I can't "afford" it... but at the same time I honestly don't want to take a position I know I would immediately be looking to bail on anyway. The first red flag was when she said two techs had left the previous week unannounced. This was a small company of 8 people and the position paid very well, stated salaries up to the mid 70k depending on experience. While I never asked about the delay some other red flags came up such as the receptionist stating how overworked she felt and how her role actually handles.

It felt like a really sketchy situation with how rushed the hiring process was to begin with... but then for this to happen it just made me want to bail out.
Click to expand...

Dude just go back. Email him back and say that you had a "family emergency" or something. Just get the job and keep looking for another while doing it.
 
45 minutes?

What?

I'd have sat there all damn day, showed up first thing in the morning and continued to wait the next day.

You're unemployed, you've passed the bloody phone interview, the job was yours...

What the hell. What in the actual hell.
 
Thacker said:
Even if the interview was at 3, I got there at 2:45 and still had not spoken with the owner by 3:45 while I heard him make multiple phone calls and give various directions to two of his current techs?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't you take that as a good sign that things stay busy there?
 
Part of me is like, fuck that, we shouldn't be so desperate that companies can just do whatever they like because they know how bad people want jobs ... but at the same time, if you needed a job that badly you probably should have stuck it out, got the job, got some more experience/contacts, and then be on the lookout to jump ship when the time was right ... I think you kinda goofed OP, but it depends on how badly you really do need a job ...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

So you're in the club and Ralph Fiennes slaps your gf's ass. What do you do?
2
59
2K
stickkidsam replied
I never understood why you can't go faster than light - until now
32
1K
jason10mm replied
Farmer gives cows VR headsets to reduce anxiety and increase milk production
30
2K
trikster40 replied
I'm afraid I can't handle my new job
2
56
4K
wipeout364 replied
I'm nearly 30 and I've never had any alcohol before. Am I missing out?
2 3 4
179
5K
Aenima replied
Top Bottom