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?

Yes, one company offered me an interview date, then changed it. Then emailed to say I'd been selected for second interview and to reply with a chosen date/time, which I did. They never confirmed, despite me following it up twice. Then they came back again and said a specific date and time and who it would be with. I went and two of the Directors weren't there who they'd advised would be.

They said I'd hear back within a week. Eight weeks it took for them to get back to me and didn't reply to any follow up emails I sent. They offered the job and I replied two weeks later I had a new role. They then reached out to me a year later to advise the role was going to be advertised again and asked if I'd be interested. I didnt even reply. Not surprised the person left so soon who'd got the job going by how disorganised they appeared and their poor communication.

I was supposed to be interviewed for a senior level position whilst on maternity leave in a company merger. The MD arrived late, admitted she hadn't even looked at my CV and we should just have a chat. She then told me that she had already given the job to a man from the other side. Her incompetence cost them well over six figures.

I had an interview for a short term assignment where the partner in the consultancy was 45 min late (despite reception calling to say I had arrived.) I made my excuses and left the interview 15 min in. TBF I ended up working for them for over 6 years. Despite being woefully disorganised they were fun to work with and very knowledgable.

Not so much the application but the whole thing felt off. International school not in UK.
Applied to cover a teacher who’d “gone off sick” ( so I was told, truth was she’d walked out)
Interviewed and asked to start the next day. 7.15 next morning handed a contract to sign , given that children came in at 7.30 I said I’d take it home to read. Head not happy.
Classroom looked like there’d been an explosion in a junk shop. It was filthy, curtains hanging off the rails, books piled everywhere. In that I couldn’t even write my name on the board there were so many piles of books in front of it.
Breaktime I was taken outside to supervise with another teacher and was shocked not just at the state of it, who knew playgrounds could have potholes , but 5 and 6 year olds were running around where 15 and 16 year olds were playing football. Accidents just waiting to happen.
The next day I was told I was running an after school club that day in a physical activity I have no experience of or training in, could have resulted in injury risk to the kids. I refused to do it.
I said I’d work to the end of the week so as not to leave them teacher-less but I wouldn’t be back.
Only good thing to come out of it was the classroom got cleaned. Took a team of three cleaners about 6 hours so you can imagine how grim it was.
And parents were paying thousands a term for this shithole.

Yes. I applied for a job with a firm of City solicitors (I am not qualified) and passed the first interview with the guy I would be taking over from.

Then had a second interview with a partner and discovered that what he thought the job entailed (even down to the job title) was not what I had been led to believe.

Got a letter a few days later offering me the position. I declined it.

You are describing every registered charity I have ever worked with.

I attended an interview for an admin role years ago. It felt a bit strange when I was given a tour of the office and no one looked up and the room was silent. Very odd atmosphere. The interviewer then asked me if I was ok with the manager shouting at me regularly.

I was asked to a second interview. I declined.

The joys of being Freelance
I would struggle to work as an employee now, I have gone Feral

Had a job interview where the interviewer didn't ask me one question connected to the job role or my experience. All very vague questions with absolutely no clarity. Turned down the role as thought wtf is even going on here I couldnt work in that.

I have two. I'm an Executive Assistant, so relationship and compatibility are very high on my agenda.

A very well known financial services company that the agency repeatedly told me I was lucky to get a foot in with. I would be working for two people who were based in the US and had assistants there but also each spent a week a month in the UK.I wasn't sure anyway, but had two really great interviews with various people and thought I could make it work and find a niche for myself. Came down to the actual person I would work with and he cancelled twice. Then they just offered me the job, without meeting him at all. I turned it down as I need to work with someone invested in me and the working relationship, he said he trusted the judgement of those who had met me. The agency could not believe it. I just said he clearly didn't value the working relationship and that I could not decide to work so closely with someone who I hadn't met.

Second, I actually accepted the job, but then left after 4 weeks - not proud, but I quietly packed up one Friday, emailed them to say it was not working and I had a personal issue and was abroad. The agency really pressured me to accept.

Interview 1: with HR who spoke almost in a whisper, I am very gregarious and loud and assertive. Told the agency no, they convinced me to second.

Interview 2: with the director I would work with. He was pleasant, but I am the sort of person who needs a click, or something about them - charisma, arrogance, eccentricity, but he was just bland. I said no, they again convinced me to third.

Interview 3: call with CEO in another country and his EA. Again went ok, but just a bit dull. Said no.. you get the picture.

interview 4: lunch with remaining members of the team (small team so prudent to see fit). The most painful lunch ever where I just went round the table asking people how long they had been there, what their weekend plans were.

Said no, got offered and agency pushed hard for me to accept.

Got there and it was the dullest place ever, so quiet that I would leave the room to make a phone call. The Director had said he wanted someone who just did things and didnt feel the need to check everything with him, then he questioned every single decision I made, from restaurants, to times of cars to the pens I bought for the office.

Moral of the story - trust your gut and instinct.

Not mishandling an application as such, more just me not getting a good feeling or impression of them at interview.

As per my previous reply to another poster

^They called on my local landline, they knew I lived in a different county and still asked if I was interested^

No. I wasn't

The job was only worthwhile if it was full time, 16 hours a week wasn't even going to cover one of the two travel passes I needed to get there

And three months later??

It would have been cheaper readvertise locally for a part time position

Where do I start?

Big US blue-chip company's MBA-level recruitment programme. The head of programme recruitment for the UK came to my business school, met me, sent word back to the careers team that they were impressed. I did the online psychometric tests. Did two telephone interviews with the programme head, who finished with "I am going to recommend you for the final stage." I then got an email about what they called their 'Global Invitational' event for those with offers, to be held in the USA. They suggested that those needing visas (including me) should obtain them. I did - US$130 I'll never see again.

There followed two more emails saying that they were doing final shortlisting, then a final one saying that they now had made all the offers they were going to make, and to try again next year. Better than being ghosted, I guess, but still...

Then, a couple of months later, I spotted an advert for an experienced hire position in the UK and applied. They called me minutes later to offer a telephone interview the following day. We arranged a time, and when I asked for this recruiter's phone number she said "don't worry, we'll call you" and declined to provide it. No phone call came.

Then, I kid you not, two weeks later I received an unsolicited LinkedIn contact from another recruiter asking if I'd consider applying for a different position. When I told her why I wouldn't be remotely interested she did at least have the decency to go and speak to the woman who'd ghosted me previously, only for her to then claim that we had arranged a different day/time (despite email confirmation!) and then asking why I had never called.

!!!!!!!!!!!

I boycott them now.

Your interview examples make you sound quite arrogant. Someone speaking quietly, no "click", a quiet lunch (where everyone has is probably on best behaviour from having a new person there) are terrible examples and shows more about you than them

NHS ones next:

1. Me and five other candidates arrived at the Trust Headquarters for an assessment centre to be told we were in the wrong place. That's all six of us, all with letters asking us to come to Trust HQ at that time. They said that they'd taxi us up to the correct venue, and booked one cab with four seats. (Community arm of an old PCT, NW Eng, 2007)

2. Turned up for an assessment centre and was asked to digest a 70 page document before doing a joint presentation on it. We were given 20 minutes to prepare. The internal candidate was a co-author, the three external ones had obviously never seen it. In the Q&A after the presentation the panel directed all the questions straight at the internal candidate. I walked out in the middle of it. (Acute Trust, NW, 2016)

3. Advert went live on Good Friday, closing date was Easter Monday. Interviewer actually said he was surprised I had "sneaked through." (Tertiary only Trust, NW, 2016)

4. Kept waiting on the fire escape outside a pile of portacabins for over two hours. In December. Trust Chair eventually arrived reeking of booze, and nodded off during the interview. ("Birthplace of the NHS", Greater Manchester, 2007, now thankfully defunct)

Kept waiting in a corridor used as a store room for three hours. (Community Trust, NW, 2007)

And the job I did accept: as part of the application process I was asked to write a market analysis and strategic plan. Did this. At the assessment centre I was the only candidate who turned up. Was automatically advanced through to final interview the following week. Got offer immediately after. When I started in post, it turned out that interviewing me and making the offer was the only thing the Director did on the one day he had at work between returning from his suspension and going off sick, which is where he still was when I resigned nine months later. And when I was asked to finish his work on the strategic plan I opened it up to find that it was copied and pasted word for word from the submission I'd made as part of the selection process.

Yes. I had five or six interview rounds with pretty much everyone in the team and management up to CEO level, and then there was absolute silence for about two weeks from the HR.

I assumed that I did not get it, but felt weird as there was so much effort from both sides to arrange meetings, and quite detailed questions discussed re benefit package, logistics etc - so I thought it deserved at least 10 seconds to inform me back that I wasn't succesful. So I dropped them a very polite and neutral reminder, and almost immediately received back an email with a rejection and a two page document attached, detailing my flaws as a candidate - with quite personal commentaries. Looked like aggregated notes from all interviews, but in totality made me look like a stupid undereducated bimbo with illusions of grandeur. A complete character assassination.

I shrugged and forgot about it, although it did leave a bad taste and did hurt my self esteem. Then, in another two weeks, received an offer from the same person, now saying how great I was. Did not accept it, obviously - I assume the other candidate rejected them.

The last time I applied for a job I heard nothing. So I wrote again inquiring whether my application had been received. Got an interview, got the job and... well, that was in 1986 so it worked out pretty well.

I very nearly declined my current job as the lead up to the job offer was so bad. First interview was with my direct manager, she didn’t ask me one question and didn’t tell me anything about the role at all. She basically spent all the time talking about herself, telling me how good she was at her job. She constantly interrupted me if I tried to talk/ask questions, and talked over me.
Second interview was with the area manager, again he spent the entire time talking about his previous jobs and asked nothing about me, and said nothing about the job I was applying for.
I was so close to declining but decided to give it a go as it’s an organisation I admire.
Two years later, and I love my job. My first impressions were correct though, my manager is neurodivergent, has ADHD. She has large gaps in her management skills, interpersonal skills and social skills. She still talks over me constantly 😆. But she is kind and hard working and does her best with the skills she does have.
The area manager is useless, knows nothing about our department and we only see him every few months (when he visits and talks about himself for a while and then
leaves 😆).
But the job itself is great, I am really glad I gave it a go.

I'm a recruiter and one I applied to with a recruitment organisation took two years to respond. When they finally did it wasn't to speak directly with me but to get me to respond in writing to an endless series of scenarios. I said if this was an indicator of the of the candidate experience they were offering I wasn't interested in being a part of it.

How did you guess ;-)

Fair comment - but clearly we were not a match and I wouldn't enjoy working there and they wouldn't enjoy working with me. Nothing wrong with any of those attributes but I found it a struggle to go for lunch with 4 people all of whom sat in silence unless answering a question, that wasn't an environment that I enjoyed or one where I felt I could do a good job for them. My job often involves long hours working very closely with these people, for me the relationship and click is important. For someone else, they won't care about that so much.

Still disagree that a polite phone call to ask if you were still interested in a job you’d previously shown interest in could be described as “handling an application so badly you decided not to work for them”.

presumably you hadn’t moved in the 3 months, so when you originally applied you were interested despite the commute.

i had the same for my current job. Applied, interviewed, didn’t get it. Moved on. 3 months later a phone call to ask if I was still interested.

it’s normal practice. Not something I’d think less of a company for doing.

I have. It took weeks for them to organise a first stage interview. First interviewer was 15 minutes late (this was over lockdown so all interviews conducted on zoom). That set the tone. I had to wait two weeks for the second interview. Not ideal, but fine.

Second interview went well but I really disliked the woman interviewing me. She asked how competitive I was and that she "always liked to win". It wasn't a sales job but it was supporting a sales team, so maybe that's where that came from.

Anyway, she said HR would be in touch for my third and final interview. After about 8 days, I hadn't heard anything, so contacted their HR on the Monday and they said I would hear by the end of the week. They emailed on Friday night inviting me for an interview two weeks away. It was all so drawn out that I pulled out. It had been around two months at this point and I just couldn't be bothered with it any more.

Yes, when I was a young graduate I was desperate for a job after the 2008 crash and had interview with a small company. It was with a manager and the CEO. The CEO was so rude and arrogant during the interview, I was so upset but also nearly burst out laughing when he compared himself to Barack Obama. They asked me to do an interview task and I just completely ignored it, I was tempted to tell them where to stick their job but was wisely advised against this.

A few years ago I had a look at their glass door reviews and they were horrendous. Apparently the CEO expected staff to clean up his dog’s mess etc (this is a tech type company). Unbelievable really!

Yes. NHS as a bank wards care assistant in lockdown. Hired on spot in video interview. Was on maternity at time and had left a legal solicitor partnership but wanted to work.

Chased them weekly. Nothing.

Then got a call from a ward saying I was due to start in an hour, where was I for uniform check. Drove the hour. Got there. Couldn't start. No vaccines. No training. Will be in touch.

Next week a very cross ward person that I hadn't turned up.

Called multiple times. Still have not heard anything yet they still send me the bank email positions every month.