Please don't get my hopes up and waste my time.

The BBQ Pit
1

I found out about that job you’re offering. I know I don’t have the requisite professional experience, even if I do have unpaid experience in exactly what you want. I think I can do the job.

On the whole, I wasn’t expecting a call back. I thought I’d throw the resume out there because you never know what will happen, right?

Imagine my surprise when you want to do a phone interview. This is the first time I’ve ever been approached for something like this – really, truly given the time of day for a job like this. The interview goes pretty well, I think, considering you ask me for some writing samples.

I send them in. You say you want more. I’m really getting excited now.

You say “These are really good! Can you come in for a face to face interview?”

I take the time off work unpaid. Holy cow. This is my dream job, guys, and I know you know it. You want to start the interview at the same time I’m usually at work; well, I can afford to give you an hour or so.

You keep me for three hours. I interview four times with a total of six people. I enjoy myself and it seems they do, too. I get on with everyone. I’m getting happier, more excited.

“You’ll know by Monday!” they say. “We just all need to get together and discuss it, but we’re pretty busy. For sure you’ll know on Monday.”

I get home and there’s a bright shiny new email in my box politely informing me that while they liked me and they liked my samples, they just don’t think they can convince their corporate office to hire someone without professional experience.

Excuse me? Excuse me? Couldn’t you have told me that last week? Couldn’t you have told me that before I took time unpaid off work? Or spent hours working up those writing samples, reading them, rereading them, writing new stuff to the specs you requested? Couldn’t you have emailed me after the phone interview? After the samples? Didn’t you think it was worth it if you really thought I was capable?

And more than that. If you’re just being kind? Fuck you. If the writing wasn’t up to your standards, then let me know what needs to change. If you didn’t think I’d get along in the company, have the decency to tell me. Say “This is derivative. Do something better.” Say “It goes all over the place. Tighten it.” Say SOMETHING.

You’ve wasted my time and yours if you’re not full of shit. You knew when I walked in how much experience I had. Hell, there’s even another guy there fresh out of college. He has no experience either, so what else is going on?

Even about this I just can’t build up the vitriol. I’m just unhappy and confused.

2

My guess would be they found someone else they liked better for the job: doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with you, just that they liked someone better. They wouldn’t have wasted their time talking to you if they didn’t think it was a possiblity.

I’d email them back and say you loved the company and really enjoyed the interview and would be very interested in hearing if any other positions came up that you would be qualified for.

3

Intending no disrespect, but hell yes, they would have. Some companies will waste time bullshitting people for no particular reason.

4

speaking as an executive, that was a stupid letter. I’d have gone w/the ‘some one else more closely matched what we were looking for’, nebulous but undefined. I believe you need to let some one know that they’re not getting the job, but corporate part of my brain says it’s not smart to spell out why.

I have great sympathy for your position - I once interviewed for a managment position about 80miles away, which would have required relocation. I interviewed, was told in the interview that they were considering the current ‘assistant’ (a lateral move for me) for the position, would I consider THAT positon “if” they “happened” to offer it to the current assistant. I"d have preferred to have known that from jump, so I didn’twaste the 160 mile round trip.

Sorry.

5

There is also the possibility that one of the people you interviewed with talked to a suit at corporate who shut him down right then and there.
Don’t burn your bridges, send them a nice e mail back saying that you would like to be considered for any future positions that become available.

I didn’t get hired by Volvo the first time I interviewed. They hired somebody else, who was an idiot. After they fired him, they re-interviewed me and hired me.

Shit as they say sometimes happens.

6

There are several reasons why they might do this, especially if it is a government agency or hiring for a government funded project. They have to jump through hoops to show their hiring process is “fair”, even though they know exactly who they want to hire. I was actually flown in for a job interview once to an Iowa state university, and it was crystal clear from the start that no one was interested in talking to me – but I matched their paper criteria.

If not this, the most likely reason is that someone with some clout saw your app and directed you be interviewed, but didn’t have enough clout to order you to be hored or lacked the clout to override the HR dictates of the minimum job requirements. So you might have been fodder for some internal power struggle.

7

I interviewed for my current job with 6 different people over a 5 week period. Found out that was pretty much standard for us. And yes, they did have to convince a suit that I was the guy they wanted. My co-worker, who was hired a month later, even had to interview with me. And I am not a supervisor. :eek:

Some companies just take a really long time to hire. They want to be sure.

OR they could be pulling your chain a bit so that you’ll lose a little confidence and allow yourself to be lowballed.

8

Conceivably – they did mention that they’ll keep interviewing even after they’ve found who they wanted. Still, I’d be a lot happier to hear “You’re great, we hired some people with more experience, but we’ll keep you in mind.”

Wellllll… I found out about the friend by an employee. Someone who does have a fair amount of clout, in fact. And it may be the reason I was interviewed in the first place, but even he wasn’t sure if I’d get to the point of a second interview. He was honest, and I was honest with myself. The company’s a bit new to be having internal power struggles like that; then again…

Frankly, I’m at the point where I’m willing to take an internship for a design job. The problem is, so are thousands of others. I’d be glad to do three months probationary getting paid crap to get the opportunity to try. I’m getting a bit depressed about it: I could go back to the old idea of programming on the notion that at least I’ll be making more money in a job I don’t love, but I’d much rather enjoy going to work every day and afford a reasonable lifestyle.

Reasonable includes a nice one-bedroom and broadband and not having to worry about my bills, incidentally. :smiley:

And for what it’s worth, I didn’t burn any bridges. I sent them a nice thank-you indicating I’d keep an eye out in the future.

Maybe they just interviewed me as a favor to my friend. That’s depressing in itself: not that I didn’t get there on my own talents, but more than that, I showed them my talents and didn’t get much further. But you’d think if I sucked that they’d just show him my writing samples and say ‘You think we can hire THIS?’

9

Companies aren’t above interviewing non-candidates solely for the purpose of fucking with/leveraging “real” candidates. They’ll do so unapologetically.

10

I’ve also experienced the ‘bait and switch’ interviewing process. The job that I was interviewing for was one that was a good match for both my experience and my goals, not an ideal, but good. Then about 90% of the way through an interview that was going well, I was asked, “…if we don’t hire you for this tech position, would you be willing to be hired for a near minimum wage job that would probably be upgraded into the tech position within a year or two.”

I chose to answer honestly, since I’d flown over 1000 miles for the interview I didn’t think I could justify a move for a job that would be barely meeting expenses after I’d moved. If I were in the area, already, I’d have jumped at getting my foot in the door, but without a guarantee for the higher paying and more interesting job there was no way I was going to move. Of course, my current address had been all over my resume and every communication I’d had with the HR types the whole time.

11

If it makes you feel any better, this recently happened to a co-worker of mine. She and I both were hired on the same date about eleven months ago. She saw an internal job posting that she really wanted, but one of the criteria was 12 months of seniority. She consulted with our manager, who consulted with HER manager, who advised her that it “probably wouldn’t matter” and that the system is designed to reject internal applicants who don’t meet seniority criteria. If it let her apply, she should apply; worst case scenario would be that she would get a rejection letter, right?

She applies, and behold, is contacted for an interview. She, too, had to take an unpaid day off to go interview for the job. She flew out of town, went to the interview, and was told quite shortly after entering the room with the interviewer that “there’s been a little misunderstanding…” You can guess where it went from there.

Seems like the department was trying to cover each other’s asses on this one, though. While they admit she never should have been offered an interview because she was about a month shy of a year’s tenure, they suggested (and pretty much forced) that she exit the interview room through a rear door, so that none of the other applicants or staff members would be aware of their SNAFU. The interviewer told her “not to worry” about writing a letter to anyone expressing concern, because they don’t need to know about what had happened.

Long story short, the position is now filled, so she must wait again to apply. Honestly, I told her from the beginning not to get her hopes up, because if they didn’t want someone with a year under their belt, they wouldn’t have put it in the requirements. My boss, our co-workers, and some of the team she was going to interview for got her hopes up, though, and I think she was rightfully upset.

In reality, there’s no reason this job needs you to have one year down. She could do it blindfolded. Not to mention that training and certification for this department takes about two months, so by the time she finished up there… yep.

Shit happens, though.

12

This happens a lot with public sector jobs. I finally got hired on at my place of employment after doing attorney work for 4 months at law clerk pay. Because it’s public sector they had to go through the process of posting the job, having HR screen applicants that met the criterea on paper, ect. Fortunately, however, my boss didn’t subject anyone to an actual interview, because the job posting was a required formality to hire me legitimately and he didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. I know it’s a sucky thing, but hell, I put in 3 1/2 years in my place of employment already, it would have been a great deal more unfair to me to NOT hire me.

13

Yet more reasons I will never again work in any large organization.

14

Agreed. I’ve always worked for tiny companies until this one (a bit more than 1,000) and it’s unbelievable the number of games which happen.

15

Yeah, and I’m required by unwritten company policy to interview any internal applicants, even if they don’t meet my requirements otherwise. I hate that.

16

The State of Nevada certainly fucking does! They are required to openly recruit, interview and then turn down people for jobs that are already filled by friends and family. Seen it happen more than once, personally. I applied for a position once (I was actually encouraged to apply, by the dept head guy) for a job whose description looked like a copy of my resume. I went thru a 2 hour interview with 6 people, nailed every question, had every answer. Had the education and experience.

The department head’s daughter got the job. :rolleyes: Fresh outta high school. No work experience, no college.

Something just like it happend again a couple years later. I don’t even bother applying anymore.

Huge fucking scam. I’m still a little pissed off about it.

17

I feel for you. I’ve been to more than one interview where it’s clear they’re just seeing me to check off a box on their fair hiring checklist for HR. And then they don’t even have the courtesy to send me a rejection letter–hell, a rejection email would be ok.

Call me in, waste my time, make me miss work, and give me no hope of success yet force me to go through an interview anyway…no, it’s fine, I love it.

18

If you are still annoyed, report him. Nepotism is illegal. I googled “report nepotism Nevada” and found this statute.

Assistant Attorney Generals lives are made easier if you know the statute. :slight_smile:

19

Little Plastic Ninja, all of the nefarious deeds described by the other posters may well be true, however, don’t look for trouble where there isn’t any? They liked you, they wanted to hire you, they went to bat for you (at some level), but - of the 6 billion people in the world they could have hired, you came in second. It happens all the time, every day, day after day. Someone comes in second. Yeah, it sucks. But no need cursing them out or calling them names.

Pick up your chin, and thank them for the opportunity to get to know them and the opportunity to have them get to know you. Try to be positive and build on the relationships you’ve started, you never know where it will lead!

20

Goddamn! I wish I had this available at the time! (Its been a while now, too late I’m sure of it)

But, yes! I’m still pissed! My career path (and life) would have greatly differed had I got that position.