Hi,
Im looking for opinions and want to know if the situation below is normal/common/plain strange. Thank you.
( I am not in the UK but in mainland Europe )
I currently have a job but am signed up with a recruitment as looking to change. I trust the recruiter 100% - they seem reactive, honest, organized.
A few weeks ago recruiter sends me a job description and the name of the company and asks if they can put my CV forward, company is pretty much household name and currently expanding fast.
I say go for, it let’s see. All good. Company wants to do a video interview. I agree to a day and time. Meeting all set up. I then get a call from recruiter who seems rather embarrassed and tells me they want to change day and time and do the call the next day. I shuffle round my diary and make it happen.
I read up on company, prep interview etc etc.
3 minutes before call Im all set up. I send email to interviewer to say I’m ready when you are.
I join call, she joins 5/6 minutes late, I don’t mention it ( of course ) she briefly introduces herself as talent acquisition and tells me a little about what she does and then starts asking lots of questions none of which are exactly relevant to my position. Seems quite junior. I answer the best I can. Call goes on for 1h40 minutes, she asks a lot of questions, tells me a lot about how company director works but in all honesty really didn’t seem to actually understand what my position entails ( corporate financial analyst). She asks for my salary expectations, I reply saying I would accept the number on their offer.
She then tells me that they actually already have a candidate and that they will probably sign with them but wanted to interview me just in case. I thank her for her time ( whilst fuming inside that they’ve wasted mine).
I then call recruiter who says they should have let me know that they already had someone in mind and cancelled interview. Recruiter is apologetic.
Next day talent acquisition sends email to recruiter that just says position has been filled and that she’s off on holiday ...
No other feedback. Two weeks later still no feedback. Fine but slightly peeved that my time was wasted ( prep + interview).
Found out through grapevine today that friend of friend of friend got the position. I reach out and congratulate them - we chat, I find out that 1) he wasn’t interviewed by talent acquisition lady I had my call with but by CFO 2) that he signed the day before I did video interview.
Are CV are pretty similar with this guy - same double degree - same professional certification - same experience, same previous position ( think him 7 at say KPMG and me at EY) - same double nationality.
Im happy for the guy who got the job and honestly the interview put me off so much that I wouldn’t have taken it if offered.
But I’m still pissed off about the process - is this how some companies work ? Do I just need to grow thicker skin ?
Thank you for taking the time to read long post!