Has an employer ever handled your application so badly you decided not to work for them?

[ThatArtfulCoralFinch]

I’ve been applying for jobs recently, and some of these employers don’t half mess things up. I take this to say a lot about what they might be like to work for. Have you ever had an employer mess you about so much during the application process - being disorganised, uncommunicative, or even disrespectful - that it completely turned you off the idea of working for them?

Did you write them off as a potential employer, or did you give them a chance anyway?

Yeah

I applied for a job in a company that had merged from a previous one

I had applied to a role at the previous one, been offered a role, but hadn't accepted it.

The recruiter obviously found this out. He ghosted me on LinkedIn/unfriended me, and actually deleted my application on the company website in Workday!

For me this depends on the employer and what they’ve done wrong. On the one hand, interviews are a two-way street. But sometimes the people bungling the interview process are nothing to do with those you’ll be working with day to day.

I had a Hr team ghost me after 4 challenging interviews and a round of psychometric testing. The last discussion I had with them was 'we'll book in a call with the CEO, and then make an offer'. After that, nothing. No response to my follow up email either.

So six months later when they reached out to invite me to apply for another role and go through the process again, I told them firmly no thanks, and exactly why. No way in hell was I going to work for them after that.

Yes! They were very disorganised and unfriendly so I rejected the job.

I applied for a full time job a significant public transport commute away

I received an email stating that the position was suspended while they dealt with 'at risk' employee applications

Three months later I was called and asked if I was still interested and would I consider an interview for the same job, but 16 hours a week

No. I would not consider a four hour round trip for less than four hours a day. Fuck off.

I did and foolishly I went there anyway. Ditched the job 5 months in, as they were even more hopeless than I anticipated.

I work in HR/recruitment so if a company handles my application poorly it tells me all I need to know about them.

I got offered a job from an organisation like that, accepted it and regretted it.

Hugely disorganised application process, friendly and engaging CEO but who knew nothing about the job and answered questions with a lot of waffle, not asked to provide ID or prove references (v important for this type of organisation); and one 45 minute interview with no tasks, panel, process for a finance director role.

The organisation was a nightmare to work for- everything last minute, panic stations, no processes, a CEO with no finance knowledge and really scary safeguarding practices.

I recently applied for a graduate position at a local authority. Things didn't get off to a great start when they were 20 minutes late. I was then led into a cluttered side room to do a pre interview assessment (which was fine apart from someone rushing in 10 minutes into it to tell me they'd given me the wrong assessment!) The interview was a bizarre, quite combative experience where I was asked just one question about myself and my experience and the rest of it centered around organisational values. One of the panel also took umbridge at the fact I had a specific question for another panel member, who I'd found on LinkedIn, which was related to their experience working at the organization.
3 weeks and 2 follow ups later, I'm still yet to receive the outcome, but in the unlikely event I get an offer, I won't be accepting it!

Yep, Microsoft head office at Victoria station, PA to senior staff. I made it to the last two, many many interviews. I didn't get any sort of call or email when I didn't get it. Radio silence - then hearing that the other candidate got it on the grapevine. Which was staggeringly obvious at that point. Still utterly furious to this day.

I should add that it was the job of the agency to contact me, they failed, so when they contacted me about another role in banking which was an absolute bitch of a commute to the City, I declined.

Yes - I was thinking of not accepting the interview anyway as was pretty sure I didn't really want the job and was trying to make sure I held out for the right fit. They had offered the interview the day before and needed to accept by 5pm that day. Got a panicky call at midday to ask if I was accepting the interview. This made me sure that I didn't want the job.

Have heard about some large, multinational companies with many, many rounds of interviews etc, unjustified IMO!

Yes agree @Loopytiles it's so stupid. Nobody needs 5 bloody interviews for a job.

Person who would be my boss told me to hang my coat up ‘properly’ instead of putting it on the back of my chair . It was a leather coat which didn’t have a loop and I wasn’t going to put it over a horrible hook and dent it.

Didn’t accept the job offer, bossy 👢.

If everyone did this, the NHS would have no staff… ;-) Maybe that’s been my experience anyway.

I don't think that's particularly bad. If someone is on my shortlist I won't strike them off the list because I've second guessed that something about the job won't suit them. I'll ask if they're interested and they can say yes or no. For all they know you could have moved.

I was offered a job with a salary that was significantly lower than the one they'd advertised.

I withdrew my application - I wouldn't work for a company that had so little respect for their staff.

I have a theory that lots of companies especially public sector run little cottage industries in recruitment meaning they think they will have a job for life. If someone is ideal then for goodness sake grab em!

Agree with @ThanksTav Applying for an NHS job is an exercise in extreme patience and tolerance, which to be fair you will need for the job.

Yeah, went for an interview. Got a call later that day saying that unfortunately I wasn't successful but they would like me to come in and intervew for another role that they thought I would be very suitable for.

Had an interview then was invited back to a second interview with more senior people. Then nothing. Complete radio silence. After three weeks I cracked and called the organisation. "Oh they said, we decided not to fill that position after all."

This is going back a few years, but not far enough for them to be forgiven - mid 1980s (Equal rights came in mid 1970s). At the interview for a professional position, the partner in the firm told me that although I was very well-qualified I could never become a partner in their firm because I was a married woman!

I turned them down there and then!

Bad Interviews here rather than bad application process

The one where they told me at the end they "didn't like" women with children (2010s)
The one where they told me my qualifications were shit and shouted at me and pulled apart my answers all the way through (and then wanted to progress me to the next stage?)

Yes just recently. Applied for a job, the company contacted me asking me my salary expectations - fine. I replied with what I was looking at, they then sent me an interview request for a completely different role (in a very specific area which I have no qualifications in!) and when I contacted them to query it, they said that my salary expectation was too high for the role I applied for and so they'd put me forward for another role that was on a higher salary?! It was literally two completely different sectors😂I realised they hadn't even bothered to look at my CV (if they had they would know that I was absolutely not appropriate for the job they were trying to get me into) and binned them off.

Teaching interview - they’re always overly intense but on one I was asked to write, without prep, an essay on two renaissance dramas they produced copies of. I had never taught them (they’re not universally on the syllabus)
ridiculous request.