Interviewer stood me up

I just wanted to vent some frustration regarding an incident which just happened to me while on the job hunt and get some feedback.

On Wednesday 21st September I was scheduled to have an interview with a company for a sales/marketing role, however that morning I received a call from the recruiter (who had set the interview up) informing me that the company director was sick and would therefore have to cancel the interview and reschedule for another date. I thought fair enough, if you're sick there's nothing you can do about it and we'll reconvene another time.

We rescheduled for the following Wednesday (28th). Early that week I started getting sick myself, so by the time Wednesday morning rolled around I knew I was in no fit state to be interviewed for 40+ minutes and best represent myself. I called the recruiter first thing at 9am and informed them that we'd have to reschedule again as I wasn't well (the interview was at 1pm so I gave as much notice as I could, as I wanted to see if I was better by the morning). I let them know that we could aim for Friday of that week or even better early the following week.

We agreed on Friday 30th as a provisional date as I wasn't totally sure if I would be okay by then, but I informed the recruiter that the day before the interview I would let her know my condition. I told let her know I was fine and would be good to interview which she confirmed.

So the day is finally here, after many reschedulings the interview was on. The company is a 25 minute drive away from my house so made sure to give myself enough time. When I get into the building I inform the Receptionist that I was here to see the company director for an interview, she told me to take a seat and would be with me shortly.

After 5 minutes she returns and informs me that the director has been called out and isn't sure when he'll return, so informs me that we'd have to reschedule again and asks for my contact details. By this point I wasn't very happy but I knew this wasn't her fault, so I obliged and gave the details to her.

As soon as I got out I called the recruiter and informed her of the situation and she couldn't have been more apologetic if she tried. She told me that the director hadn't contacted her regarding being out of the office, and would have contacted me if she had. She would let me know what the situation was when she knew, but I let her know how unprofessional and rude I thought the director was.

The more I think about it, the more I think he did this deliberately, I mean it's 6pm and I haven't even got a call /email apologising, bearing in mind my interview was for 10am.

1st Reschedule - Him
2nd Reschedule - Me

What I find funny is:
Surely the receptionist knew the company director was not in the office (pretty small office), why did she pop away for 5 minutes while I waited, surely she could have informed me that he wasn't in instead of me waiting around. I just had a feeling he was skulking around in the office as I was 10 minutes early. That's just me being cynical though.

Conclusion:
I was a bit unsure of the job before I attended the interview, but after this experience I'm better off without a company which is that unprofessional or rude. Surely if that's the way they run a business, working there would be a nightmare. The only thing I want from them is an apology for wasting my time driving there. Employment is a two-way street.

Reply 1

paulmcdermott90

Has anyone had a similar experience, it's the principal of the matter that means more to me than anything else.

Reply 2

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by PMaccer

Has anyone had a similar experience, it's the principal of the matter that means more to me than anything else.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Communication gets mixed up like that with anyone. I just had a recruiter leave me an answerphone message late at night scheduling a second round interview 3 hours away at 0930 the next morning - the voicemail didn't arrive, so I knew nothing about it and effectively just didn't turn up! Probably annoyed the Exec I was supposed to meet, and it certainly screwed my diary planning up massively. But I can see what happened, and someone (in this case the recruiter) had an off-day and didn't follow up their 'ring me when you get this message' when I didn't ring them (because I hadn't got the message). I want the role though, so I've waited patiently, and sure enough I was called today to reschedule. If I get the position, the faff and fury of the last few days will be nothing. If I don't get it, it's still the same thing, someone had an off-day.

We live in a world of 'always on' communications where we don't have to rely on the postal service and telegrams, you managed to easy deferrals of the interview and then the final one screwed up - c'est la vie. Do you want the job or not?

Reply 3

paulmcdermott90

I completely understand your point regarding communication and this is extremely pertinent in your situation, quite clearly the recruiter should have at least attempted to contact you a few more times directly as opposed to leaving a message when there is an interview the next day (and you are 3 hours away). However this doesn't apply with my own as all parties were aware of the interview, it's business negligence.

I think most people believe Interviews are just an opportunity for an employer to pick the best candidate. While yes this is true, it's also an opportunity to see if interviewee likes the job, the company, the people, the culture and to answer any questions which could help make an informed decision. An interview is supposed to be beneficial for both parties.

So when I arrived at the office and they said the director wasn't in it raised some serious red flags. Not even a courtesy message to cancel and as of yet still no apology. The first thing it screams is unprofessional, so if they treat candidates like this imagine how they treat staff where there are tight and stressful deadlines.

After this experience I think I dodged a bullet, after all you spend an entire 1/3 of your weekday at work, why make it an unhappy experience. So good luck to the potential candidate!