I'm going to etch some of my job bitterness here, so I don't carry it around with me.
Last week, an interviewer asked me a question, and when I answered, he says in response, "Are you lying?"
Stunned, I just stared at him until he made an apology and told me he was just jaded from all his recent interviewing. "Me too," I agreed, narrowing my eyes.
This is why.
One company, Household Auto Finance, pre-screened me over the phone, then asked me to come in for an interview. But before I could interview, I needed to fill out an online (different from the first one I'd filled out) application, which took me nearly an hour. I also had to agree to a credit report check, a drug test, and a background criminal check.
When I arrived at the interview, I waited 20 minutes, then was given a "Vector Analysis Test" to complete which mapped my personality with a series of dots on some "objective" scale.
Then, I interviewed and was asked to come back for a second interview in two weeks. Scheduled for a day which was Kev's birthday, I changed a few things around and said I could make the appointment.
During the next 10 days, I received a few follow-up phone calls confirming the second interview date...
then the DAY before my interview, the HR person calls me to say they've scheduled another person "more qualified for the position" in my interview time slot, and thanks very much, but no thanks.
I'm glad to not have interviewed with them, all in all, because I surely would not want to work for a company that treat people like cattle, and pre-supposes all sorts of things about them from a graph which company HR personnel have been taught to read in one three-hour training session.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Then, I have another series of experiences somewhat like Household.
I come in for an interview, and wait, and wait, and wait, until the HR person ambles up the driveway, late.
I am given a proofreading test, interview with the HR person, interview with the marketing manager, and two hours later, am asked to complete a writing test (author a press release on a pad of paper in 15 minutes).
I meet again with the marketing manager, who at some point calls in the marketing director, who reminds me of Richard Lewis maniacally running his neurotic fingers through his hair.
I leave three hours later.
I am called back for a second interview. This time, I meet with four different people for 30 minutes at a time. The interview is concluded in a conference room with the marketing manager, and the marketing director, who arrived 20 minutes late, and can't now really talk because their next job candidate is coming in soon. I pass two interviewees on the stairs while making my way out.
The next day, I receive another phone call. The marketing director wants to meet with me again since he was late for the last interview. I agree, somewhat stupidly.
In the conference room, the first question is posed as such: "Why should I hire you?" Thinking "why should I work for you?" I launch into adjectives to describe why I'm super cool.
Ten minutes later, I'm brought "upstairs" to see the CEO. The marketing director departs for the dentist. Um, OK, over-schedule much?
The CEO spends about a half hour with me, and is seemingly more interested in what my husband does for a living than in me.
But he does ask me to e-mail him a few chapters from the young adult novel I'm working on...
I do this, somewhat stupidly.
Haven't heard from them since.
I'm not lying.
Jaded?
Blastingly so.