We've had dating red flags, how about JOB red flags?

[uniglowooljumper]

The two worst jobs I ever had, I should never have taken up after the interview.

In both interviews, it was very clear that the supervisors/bosses did not want the person whose job I was interviewing for to go. In both second interviews, the person who held the position was there and in both cases the person was promoted.

There was lots of talk about how the boss/team hated to see 'Susan' or 'Wendy' go, how super Susan and Wendy were, staff would say things like 'You have big shoes to fill' and there was constant comparisons to Susan and Wendy.

I ended up quitting both after a month or two.

Now, any interview like this is the dating equivalent of talking about exes or saying your ex was psycho. I don't go any further.

Do you have any job red flags that make you nope out immediately?

Not so much a red flag as a whole red wall, was the day I went to sign the contracts and asked how many staff were in my team (that I was supposed to be line managing) they said “oh we’re still advertising, but I’m sure it will be fine”. I queried this at the time and asked how I was going to manage to only work 5/7 shift patterns without my staff to be told “er we’ll find some cover and you can just take your holidays in January/ the quiet season.”

I resigned after 3 days. It was a shit show from start to finish and I still can’t work out which red flag I missed at interview to get me to that position in the first place!

being told i would have to work late regularly for no extra pay, i declined, they offered to increase the day rate slightly to cover it - still no deal.

Taking over a year to get the contract to me was probably the biggest red flag. Fortunately I was in a job I enjoyed but felt ready to take the next step in terms of responsibility. Absolutely piss poor management would you believe!

being told i would have to work late regularly for no extra pay, i declined, they offered to increase the day rate slightly to cover it - still no deal.

I feel things like this should be make clear before you start. I work in a job where you are paid opening hours of say 9-5, however you then have tills to cash up, cleaning to do, and setting up for the day outside of those times. Yet it isn't paid

I had already accepted the job and felt I couldn't back down once I'd started my training but felt frustrated none the less.

I ask at the end what the interviewers' favourite part about working there is. Once I asked this and neither could come up with anything, and eventually came up with things that weren't specific to the place.

I got another job the same day so withdrew my application. A week later they sent me a rejection anyway. Okay then!

DH once interviewed for a job where they said that they were looking for someone to drive change. At interview, it was clear that the different managers had very different ideas on what the change would look like. DH declined the job offer as he decided this was a big red flag for being in the middle of infighting. The person who did take the job left after just 3 months due to the infighting between the senior managers

For me it’s many, many, many, many rounds of interviews. Unless you’re heading up MI5 or something you simply don’t need 5 rounds of interviews, you just don’t and especially for a middle management role.

For me it smacks of the company not knowing what it’s really after, organisational arrogance to think you can demand so much of candidates’ time and at little notice, as well as thinking that a role at your organisation is so coveted the process is worth it.

I’ve had it and seen this from friends in different industries and it never works out well, usually because there’s a total arsehole in the process.

@SoPanny I am howling at your post as it is so spot on. I worked in HR for years and so many managers basically thought the candidates should be paying to work in what was basically a shitty tech start up.

I once had a phone interview with a woman who said “people only leave me if they’re rubbish. Or if they’ve got another job, obviously”. I thought that was a strange remark.

She offered me a short work trial, and not surprisingly, she decided I was rubbish. I later found out she’d gone though about 50 PAs. All were rubbish, presumably.

Also, I once had a manager who said without prompting, “I am not difficult to work for”. He reminded me of people who blurt out “I’m not drunk” without having been asked. Have you ever heard a sober person say that?

@SoPanny Google do this! Are they really that desirable to work for, or do they just claim they are? They're notorious for doing about seven rounds or something. A friend got a first round interview and said he couldn't be bothered after that.

I recently had an interview over Zoom. The interviewers were pofaced throughout and I was genuinely shocked by how uncomfortable they were given it was 4 months into lock down so they should have been experienced by now. In short the synergy wasn’t there for either side. From other experienced yes high turnover is a massive red flag.

I started a job and my new boss said ‘I don’t have time to talk to you today’ He then (In front of me) kicked a graduate off a desk for me to have somewhere to sit. It was so embarrassing and I was made to look difficult in front of the whole team as soon as I had arrived. They clearly hadn’t made any effort to plan for my arrival and it didn’t get any better!

When I was newly out of university I applied for a job with a big company. I applied in July and was called for interview in February, then offered a job about two months later with a start date a couple of months after that. I accepted because it was, supposedly, a prestigious company. The interviews were carried out by HR, and weren't for a specific role, just a 'general intake'. The interviewers kept me waiting for about an hour and were clearly bored and irritated at having to do the interviews. Then when they gave me a start date, I turned up on the first day to be told that the person I had been told to report to had left and no one else had the authority to let me into the building, and I was made to stand outside in the rain for an hour whilst they decided what to do with me. I should have turned on my heels and run for the hills. But I was young and naive and didn't have the confidence and I had already left my job to take this one up. That job changed the course of my life, and not for the better, because once I was there and the training that I had been promised didn't materialise, I found it impossible to move on because I couldn't get decent experience to put on future applications. I still see them advertising now with promises of 'world leading' training, and 'market leading' salaries, and they're flat out lies (which a quick look at Glassdoor verifies. But sadly Glassdoor didn't exist in my day).

Mine was an internal move. Got approached to join a prestigious and high-profile part of the business. Told in passing by the hiring manager during one of these informal chats ‘we’ve been told we need a woman on the team’. Shoulda guessed .... when I thought about it later I realised they had only ever had one woman and when the current one left, they miraculously went and found another one ... I was bottom of the pile for every opportunity, treated as the most junior even though I had more experience than half of them. Sexist attitudes and assumptions abounded. Fortunately managed to transfer out nearly two years later to a different part of the company that suited me much better (and employed more women ...). And yes they replaced me with another token woman.

Interviewing at a school where they spend the day actively making sure you don't meet any of the students. Only realised after I had left that I hadn't spoken to a single child all day. They went into special measures shortly after.

Google do it but they can afford to as everyone except a few poseurs on hackernews wants to work at Google. Even if you don't stay, just getting the line on your CV is basically better than going to the Ivy League. They have the pick of the world.

If you're a startup working out of an industrial estate in the Midlands, behaving like you are Google is preposterous timewasting nonsense.

If you're a startup working out of an industrial estate in the Midlands, behaving like you are Google is preposterous timewasting nonsense.

Oh I know. I've seen several threads on here about interviews at "We think we're Google" places.

I was ‘head hunted’ by another company, they are known to be fairly good to staff etc so I had an interview.

Interviewer asked why I had applied...he also asked me if I had any experience in the role...

I applied to a job in my workplace that at the time I really wanted so spent ages on my application rehearsing what I would say if I got to interview.

It was internal candidates only and I was shortlisted, for what I now realise was for legal purposes (I am classed as disabled so was guaranteed an interview if I met the minimum requirements).

The interview lasted about 2 minutes and consisted of one question and a request to see my degree certificate as they hadn’t seen one before.

I wasn’t surprised to later find out that the job had been offered to the first candidate and made my interview seem like just a tick box exercise.

I went for an interview at a VI-related charity (this is relevant).

Firstly, the manager stated “I’ve advertised this job three times before and haven’t been able to find anyone to fit in with my team.” I’d sent a speculative CV which was how I came to be there.

Then he went on to say, “so, if you’re supposedly so independent as a visually impaired person, why on earth would you want to come and work for this charity.

It was one of those jobs where walking into the interview I really wanted it and was sure I’d be able to get it. But by the time I left I could really have cared less if I didn’t.

Suffice to say I didn’t get the job, and I later heard that he had never managed to recruit someone to “fit into his team.”

First proper job out of university...boss said they always had a high turnover of trainees (red flag but I didn't know any better at the time and needed a job). Interview involved the boss just talking at me for most of it rather than asking me questions.
In the year I was there he fired one trainee at the end of her probation period, then while she was working out her last days he made her cry by constantly finding ridiculous faults with her work.
I later found out that the person I'd replaced had had a screaming showdown with said boss on his last day.
The third trainee was fired for looking at indecent images of kids on the work laptop.
When I handed my notice in I witnessed my other boss going through the CVs for my replacement with feet up on his desk, reading bits out loud, ridiculing the candidates and scoffing about "young people and their fancy degrees".
They turned down graduates from top universities with impressive and varied work experience, instead hiring a man who'd spent the past decade as a professional poker player, who last worked in our field 20 years ago.

One where I was interviewing with John, the Head of Operations and James the Head of Finance.
This was before Linked In etc so you couldn't look them up online.
I shook hands with them both, paid careful attention to which man was which then halfway through the interview, one said "actually, we're just messing with you, he's James and I'm John".
They burst out laughing.
Explains the weird vague responses and questions I'd had.
I decided I simply wasn't hilarious enough to work with them and turned down the second interview.

A disinterested manager.

In my first job out of uni my manager was away on holiday the week I started. The first call I had with her didn't involve asking how my week was, instead she asked me to call her washing machine repair person because she'd forgotten she'd be away when they were coming to see her.

A few weeks after that she was doing performance objective 1:1s with her whole team but she didn't turn up to mine because I'd only just started so she didn't know what she'd be talking to me about.

The only 1:1 we ever had was my exit interview, and even that she was late to!

Don’t think being interviewed by a part-time admin role is a red flag in itself. In my last company admin staff were involved in the recruitment process and were often the most perceptive observers of someone’s abilities. Only a problem if they don’t know the role. In the company o worked for (a small company) they were very conversant in the role. It was also interesting to see how candidates for senior positions treated them knowing their position. It told us a lot about the applicants ability to work with a diversity of staff and customers.

They didn’t know the role I was applying for. They still didn’t have a clue as to my legal responsibilities towards my service users or visitors a year later when I left. My replacement had to ring me and ask what the role actually entailed. !