OK, I can laugh about it now… (All the names below are changed, and few details are given as the company is located fairly near to me.)
I made the mistake of answering a job ad in a regional paper. I can’t remember exactly what it said now, but it sounded vaguely promising.
When I turned up there were 70 people waiting for interviews and they were running extremely late. They handed out leaflets about the company, and did the interviews with 5 candidates to 1 interviewer. The magazines didn’t tell us anything about the company except buzzwords - no facts at all. In the interview they asked two questions to each person, and then let us leave, saying we would be called back for a second interview if we were contacted, lasting from 1pm to 9pm in two days time. After we left, the candidates in my group had a chat, and despite our best efforts none of us had managed to find out what the company actually did. Deciding it was a scam, we parted ways and went home, feeling well out of it. Admittedly, after trying to locate the company through Companies House and hitting a network of “registered offices” and holding companies which I had problems unravelling, I was incredibly curious.
Next day I got a phone call. Did I want to come back for the second interview? That was when I made the mistake of saying “yes”.
Again there were a lot of people waiting. One by one we were introduced to our “mentors” for the day, and told we were going off with them. Without warning, I found myself at the station with two other trainees and two mentors, and handed a ticket for a place over 1 hour’s travel away. Once we were on the train we discovered the dreadful truth. Door to door sales.
They told us they wanted us to do one day out in the field with the mentors to see if it was what we wanted to do. I already knew it wasn’t, but made the mistake of saying so to my mentor. He kept trying to persuade me to give it a try, so figuring it would be an amusing story to tell if nothing else, I said “yes”. Then he started chatting, telling me about his girlfriend “Sonia”(false name) and asked me if I was with anyone. Since this was supposed to be a job interview, I answered “no”. Suddenly he was telling me that he’d caught “Sonia” with another guy. The next thing I heard, while looking out of the window, was “Take your glasses off.” Thinking I’d got something on them I did. “You have beautiful eyes.” The glasses went back on and stayed on for the rest of the interview.
After we arrived, I went round with this guy for an hour before managing to ditch him (“Its not you, its just the job. Honest” I lied.) and encountered “You don’t need to lose weight, you look great”, “Are you looking for a boyfriend?”, “Is there anyone in your life at the moment?”, and the classic below. I have long hair and brushed out of my eyes:
“I love it when girls do that.”
“Do what?”
“Brush their hair back. It means they think ‘he’s looking at me’.” (I always thought it meant ‘I can’t see.’ My hair stayed in my eyes for the rest of the inteview.)
And all the bloody time he’s calling me “Sonia”. It is not my name. It is not even close. Its his ex-girlfriend’s. I’M NOT HER!!
Spending an interview being chased by dogs, savaged by cats, trying to pretend I’m not doing the worst job in the world, and getting hit on by my clueless interviewer. That’s bad. On the bright side I had a really interesting story to tell that night.
After I walked out, I found myself making my own way back, through a rural area I didn’t know. I have to thank the locals. When I mentioned why I was stranded, and what the job interview I’d walked out of was for, I got directions, a lift and bus times.
One small followup: A few weeks ago I was walking down the high street where I live, and heard “Sonia. Hey Sonia.” getting bellowed across the street. I kept walking, (as I said before its not my name). Except that, sure enough, it was my erstwhile interviewer. I didn’t realise until I was two streets across. When I went back for another look, there he was with another girl in tow and clipboards. He headed off before I could corner him and -no longer constrained by an interview situation - tell him EXACTLY what I thought of him. If it ever happens again, I’m going to report everything he’s pulled to his company.
And if this guy really did chuck in an Accountancy degree for a minimum wage, commission-based job working 1-9pm or longer, 6 days a week because it had better prospects, I think he really needs help.