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I have left job interviews for the following reasons:
1) (On more than 1 occasion) Turning up for interview at a specified time, only to find other people or sometimes lots of other people all there waiting for the same 'slot' all unaware it was a shared slot /queue or group interview system and that the interview becomes by default the whole day. This annoys me as all transport and personal arrangements etc get screwed up as the interview is suddenly extended from maybe an hour or so to instead hours of waiting and queuing. To me its a sign of a selfish arrogant and very incompetent company. If I was warned at the time of notification I would feel differently/that I had a choice instead of my time being wasted highhandedly by people who could not organize 'an event in a brewery'.
2) Interview panel dithering for 45 minutes plus between me and another applicant, expecting me to wait while they know I would miss my only transport home that day. I waited a fair time period then was polite, said I was no longer prepared to wait and walked out expecting to have lost the job. They offered it first thing the next morning. I nearly turned it down due to them being inconsiderate to staff but took it in the end only because I did not like the changing direction of the job I was in so there was not much to loose between them.
3) Getting offered the same money I was on for more responsibility. It took them days to make a money offer after the actual job offer and that made it worse, as again I did not feel they were either organized or trustworthy. They asked to meet with me again but I refused.
4) If not shown around (which is normal in my field) I ask to be taken to the office or workspace I will be spending my life in. Any refusal or look of surprise, panic or alarm from the interviewers and I figure they have something they really don't want candidates to be aware of. Excuses not to show you can be entertaining as they are usually clearly made up on the spot with a touch of desperation :-). Most places show you around without needing to ask them though.
5) A personnel officer asking me if I had a serious relationship or intended to have kids in the next few years. I presume she had got caught in a time warp from 1930. The fact they had not reprimanded her, retrained her or sacked her said it all.
To me an interview is where a company should be making its best impression (same as I should be doing as an interviewee). To fail to look good even in the short time period of hosting an interview just reeks of incompetent disorganized management and displays a negative or arrogant attitude towards employees - its only going to get worse once you work for them and they think they have you trapped.
Hope this helps you with your study. All the best.
Thanks for your input everyone, and especially to those who have emailed me. Much appreciated.
Once walked out of an Interview for Phd [ Psychology]...what do I win 😉
Did a 4 year apprenticeship and 2 years as as a tradesman, applied to a teacher training college,to teach woodwork, when it was a proper teaching job, mr prat interviewing me asked for gcse and a level results i didnt have any, just city and guilds etc, but i showed him the cand g results my apprenticeship indentures , certificates of competence etc, he said they where useless, i then told him where to shjove his training course and walked out, as i walked acctross car park , the chap shouted out the window, i see youre 23, i shouted back yes, he then said youire 24 next year, and will be able to become a mature student with your experience of industry, i carried on walking.
Walked out of one interview when the chap asked did i own a suit, and why i wasnt wearing one,for the interview job was working as a site joiner making concrete shuttering, told the chap , not much use a suit down a hole full of mud and wet concrete, he probably had a fetish for lads in suits.
I've had my fingers burned in the past when I've taken the job I've been offered, even though the vibes I got from the place were bad. Since then I've always insisted on having a wander around the potential workplace and talking to other employees as to how they feel.
Back in 2008, I interviewed for three roles; two with a well known global corporation and the other for an agency employing bank nurses to the local NHS trust.
The first and second roles were covered in the same interview, a lass who started flirting with me halfway through the interview! It was as embarrassing as it was unprofessional, I guess that she needed the role filled quickly. I turned it down.
The second place was like a fish tank, all glass partitions and no privacy screens which in my job is an absolute must. I went through two interviews, met the owner who struck me as a bragging alpha male type so I decided I didn't want the job.
A fortnight later, they called me and offered me a considerable amount of money to change my mind (£15k more than the job I eventually settled for), I politely declined.
Those cheapo picture frames that are a piece of glass, hardboard and 4 spring clips. Night shift job, routing the channels on the back of the hardboard. Interview consisted of them seeing how many I could put through the router in ten minutes, I didn't even last five before making excuses and leaving.
Turned down a great offer last year, clicked with company owners, brill presentation. Unemployed at time but didn't quite feel right. Tough decision but worked out well longer term.
The recruitment process is cringe worthy and full of c$$ts.
- I've experienced Dutch auctions between candidates
- Clueless recruitment staff who get so many things wrong including times and dates affecting deadlines
- Bring your sleeping bag to work and no breaks culture for the win
- Job cons based on pre-paid courses for made up qualifications (these are common was suspicious before I went)
- One employer wanted to ring me on Sundays (the only day off) to inform me of days/weeks of over-nights starting the following day
- All day national recruitment exercises: presentations with Q&A, 2 interviews, psychometric and IQ testing, group scenarios with the rest of the candidates for a handful of jobs (peanuts pay) that make you feel like a performing monkey. All this after you have filled out essay question application forms and passed a telephone interview.
Had a second interview and the hiring director was an immediately unlikeable person who was both rude and arrogant. He told the person who ushered me into the room to "get me a tea" didn't say please or thank you to her and opened the interview with the line, "someone your age should be a sales director like me, why aren't you"?
I walked.
Almost walked out of one, for a job as a 'picker' for Blacks (ex of Greenock) in their warehouse in Peterlee. Ok I was desperate at the time but the Dick who did the interview was just that, a Dick. Name of Mark Anthony (Mark Antony?) No eye contact & all he did was twiddle with a pencil which probably reminded him of his penis. I just kept thinking, 'WTF am i doing here'
I was quite pleased I didn't get the job!
the should of...
A sort of promotion to a smaller team in the same industry. We were 1 or 2 in the UK at what we did, these guys were not. 1st go at interview having explained I was short on holiday and would be able to do something with flexi time the boss couldn't get in on time to interview me - looking back he was probably too hung over. In the end lasted 6 months, completely disorganised, could only pay expenses by cheque which were about 2x my weekly pay and the travel meant I was never near a bank when it was open.
Turned down... one offered by the only good bloke in the job above, would have been good but went back to a previous boss for a chat and realised I was happy to be out of that industry. I was good at it but the reasons I was good has done much better for me outside of that work.
The other case is the shotgun/desperate approach where you have 3-4 offers from interviews and in the end play against each other. I had a good one of the 4 that was the winner I just had to wait for security clearance. I managed to keep 2 others waiting while that came through.
I gave up on an interview with a recruitment consultant (preliminary chat) when I had to spell environmental and explain everything on my CV. I stayed as she was a good laugh apart from that and had nothing else on that morning 🙂
Didn't walk out but stopped the interview
had been going something like this:
Interviewer "what is your experience of X and Y"
Me "none but I'm quick learner and would be willing to train and be happy to include those areas in the role"
Interviewer "we really looking for someone with extensive experience in X and Y"
Me "I'm sorry that wasn't in the advert, that's a pretty unusual set of skills for the role"
Interviewer "we have a candidate with those skills"
Me "so are you considering changing the role because you have a candidate who has some specific skills that are attractive to you?"
Interviewer look back at CV and asks a banal question about my education
Me "Looks like you have a candidate with an unusual set of skills that add something to the role for you - at the moment we are both wasting our time, if it doesn't work out and you can see some place for my skills and experience then get back in touch"
I'm going to an interview in a couple of hours. I'm pretty certain I don't want the job, it's a touch more money doing exactly what I do now but not really what I'm looking for. I'm just going for the interview practice really, they approached me so it's them wasting my time rather than vice versa.
Sod law say because I don't care I'll be relaxed and therefore get a job offer!
It's not a walk out story more I wish the interviewee had done so. I was working for the EA at the time and was interviewing for a post where I'd had 100+ CVs. Having boiled it down to six candidates I was looking forward to some good conversations.
My first question was "Why do you want to work for the EA?" to which one of the candidates replied "I have a friend works for you in Exeter and I'll be able to email them." (It was a while ago). We both then wasted a further 30 minutes.
If it was you I hope you got on OK after that.
I was once offered an interview for a large company working on a government contract. I accepted the interview as it was in 'Manchester' and then got given the postcode of the office... in Oldham. I went anyway but had made up my mind between the walk from the car to the office that in no way was I going to take a job working in that absolute hell hole of a place.
Weirdly I now work in Bradford but its an absolute hell hole of a place on the right side of the Pennines...
I've had one that stopped abruptly when they asked my C+ experience and I said 'none', which was not helpful as they were looking for a C+ programmer. I guess the agency must have lied to them about my experience or they were too vague in their requirements.
I also had an interview where the woman interviewer took a 5 minute phone call from her husband around getting their new marble dining table replaced as the delivered one was chipped, very weird!!
two occasion spring to mind:
1 - Company I knew by reputation only, met the owner who couldn't explain his business model to me so I decided this was a no no.
2 - Contracting Ops job, running multi site contracts, my line manager seemed like a decent guy and we got on well. I was then introduced to the Client Director for 2 of the 6 sites I would be running. He was a knob. It ended politely enough.
How about one that I arguably should have walked out of? I was interviewing to get a placement for my industrial year at uni.
Opening pitch was 'You know ebay, well, we want something like that, but with a client application.'
Right there and then I knew this was going to fail. Thankfully it waited until 1 month after I finished my placement year. Decent working practices and good quality work, but what a bloody awful product idea.
This is quite a good recruitment story;
[i]The 23-year-old, from Illanois, US, text his new female colleague a photo of his private parts just after being accepted for a new position.
His embarrassment didn't end at that, though.
After sending the first image, the man was seemingly irked by not receiving a response from the woman, and sent another to try to get things going.
And then, when she didn't reply a second time, the cocky fellow even rang up to make sure his sexual photographs were being seen.
Unfortunately, this then highlighted the fact that he'd been sending his new HR manager naughty pictures, and she called the police.[/i]
[url= http://quirker.co.uk/story/man-mistakenly-sends-hr-manager-picture-of-his-you-know-what-before-even-starting-new-job ]http://quirker.co.uk/story/man-mistakenly-sends-hr-manager-picture-of-his-you-know-what-before-even-starting-new-job[/url]
One I should have walked out of (after punching the interviewer)
Him If you don't sell enough how would you feel about me taking away your chair?
Me Well I'm sure that wouldn't happen
Him But if it did and then we sellotaped the phone to your hand?
At this point the punching should have started.
Another time I went for an interview and the girl doing the interview turned up and said 'I'm glad they told me that I was interviewing or I wouldn't have dressed up'
She looked like a rag bag and I emailed the company when I got home telling them how unprofessional I thought they were. Didn't get the job - but when my CV was sent there a second time they said that I had a point but didn't want to interview me anyway.
I was also turned down for a job for being too enthusiastic - could have done the job standing on my head. I guess the interviewer was afeared for his own job...
I asked for a telephone interview before one face to face as I suspected that I wasn't the right person for the role - again, no dice. I realised that I wasn't the right person for the role in about five minutes and asked for travel expenses form the company. Again, no dice. Funnily enough they started doing telephone interviews shortly after that...
Walked out of a contract having been asked to sort out a fundamental failing on their part on my own time.
There really are some asshats out there - but on the other hand there are some very good interviewers and managers out there too. It's just a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff - and that's what interviews (and conversations with agencies) are for.
Once - job advert specified Software Developer with n years experience, but never stated the languages involved. I thought sod it, let's apply anyway. Got an interview and spent ten minutes saying 'sorry, I'm not familiar with that language'. We both decided that I could do the job given suitable training, but that the starting salary would be so low as to be of no interest to me.
Question - didn't the recruiting manager read my CV? Why invite me to an interview when there is almost no match between my cv and what they were looking for?
Yes indeed (the standard of interviewing really does seem to be declining)
I was called to interview for a job with the Commie Games. They hadn't advertised the salary, and still hadn't included this detail in the interview pack. So I called and had to drag it out of the HR wifey. She wanted me to come along to the interview then discuss it. I wasn't dragging my arse all the way across to Glasgow without at least a range of numbers. Even including the great experience and love of sport, it was out. I got the impression I wasn't the only candidate to drop out at that stage !
Another one (also in Glasgow oddly) the people interviewing me commenced to argue amongst themselves during the interview, over how the post would be shared across the organisation. Yeah, no thanks. Get your shit straight before you try and sell the job to me ! They weren't making the post attractive. And at the end they did ask me if I would take the job if offered, I said no thanks it sounds like you need to clarify some aspects of the position internally, and the guy looked like he was going to punch me. Good call I reckon.
I always stay to the end of I actually attend the interview tho, might as well get some practice at interviews. And some stories to tell about the giant tosspots that are allowed to get near the recruitment process, can't think how.
I think people forget sometimes it is a two way process, you should be checking out the organisation and the people you will be working for as much as them checking you out.
Not walked out, but pretty well decided there and then that I wasn't interested and effectively terminated the interview in all but deed.
It was for a major US based company, and was a full day process. The morning was psychometric tests and literacy/numeracy/reasoning tests. Then there was a 'role playing' exercise in which 6 candidates were thrown together and asked to devise a marketing strategy for a product while the HR team watched. Clearly to test teamwork and interpersonal skills, etc., and always a nightmare because everyone wants to show that they're chief material and teams don't function well with 6 chiefs and no indians.
But this was a particular nightmare because of one (woman - I think it was relevant as it was 15 years ago) who was brusque, rude, spoke over everyone, got stroppy when people disagreed with her and basically derailed the whole process. It was at a time when women in the workplace were still struggling to get on equal footing, and there was considerable 'treading on eggshells' to avoid appearing to be sexist, and I had no doubt if a male had behaved in the same way he'd have either been lumped, told to shut the F up, or removed from the process for their behaviour.
Then there were interviews, usual stuff but also a 'review' of the assessment centre from the am, at which i was asked how i felt it had gone and what I felt i could / should have done different. i expressed the points above and went further to say that if it had been my team in real life i'd be looking to remove her from the team, even to the extent of performance managing her out for her bad attitude. And then said I couldn't believe anyone was really that bad and that i thought she was a plant just to make things difficult, but in doing so she'd royally ****ed up the process as they couldn't get any meaningful insight. The room went very sheepish at this point.....
I then said that i valued honesty and integrity above all else and if they wanted to really find out about me they should forget about pointless role play stuff where everyone's acting the part they think you want to see, and talk properly to me. A few final questions and we parted.
I visited them a few months later (they were a customer of the company i went to) and superaggressivewoman was working there. I don't believe they offered her the job based on her performance and even if they did, made me even more certain i wouldn't have wanted to.