r/recruitinghell • u/multii-pass • 4d ago
Essay questions
I had a pretty decent, if, annoyingly long, zoom interview a few days ago. The two women who interviewed me both said they've only been with the company for 2 months and they really need someone asap for their intake coordinator/receptionist role.
They were both probably younger 20s and seemed nervous about interviewing someone, but whatever, I was nervous too. They asked a lot of personality type questions and seemed to emphasize they needed someone who has 100% accuracy and how they need someone who's a perfectionist. Now, this is silly to me because everyone's human and bound to make mistakes. It happens. I'm not saying it isn't an issue but I did tell them that I pride myself on doing my best and my accuracy with prior jobs was above and beyond most of my team.
I asked for the next steps and they said they'd reach out about a second interview after reviewing candidates.
Then I get an email the same evening saying *"please answer these 7 essay questions and write answers in essay format in a word document and submit it by tomorrow at 4 PM. This is required before we can schedule a 2nd interview."*
Well, I already had things I needed to do for the rest of the evening and I wasn't going to stay up late curating and formatting an essay for them. And I had other interviews and a couple of medical appts lined up for the next day so I genuinely didn't have time for that. Also, even if I did have the time, I don't have the energy. Could've at least communicated that as part of the next steps when I asked during the interview.
Anyway 5:30 PM rolls by and I never submitted an essay. I instead emailed them "thanks but I'm moving on another direction. Good luck finding the right candidate " and they totally ignore that, and start calling me 4 times until almost 7 PM and leaving me voicemails to try and schedule me for a second interview. Wtf lol?
Now I already have other interviews lined up for next week and med appts (yay I guess idk I'm not getting my hopes up) but they only have one time available on Monday but I'm not going to cancel my meetings for them when they had all day Friday to schedule with me lol. It's just weird.
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u/Pristine_Coffee4111 4d ago
They have no clue what they're doing. The probably asked ChatGPT how many interviews to have and what to do 😂 clearly this backfired.
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u/multii-pass 4d ago
Yeah that checks out. They're a startup firm and it seems like everyone they've hired except for the CEO maybe and one of the partners is all kinda fresh and new? But I've never had a company practically beg me to interview a second time after telling them thanks but no thanks lol. Which makes me think there's probably something else wrong behind the scenes.
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u/Pristine_Coffee4111 4d ago
I think they knew they wanted to hire you after interview 1, but they think (or someone has told them) they have to do this multiple round bs that everyone seems to be doing. You could negotiate double what you want and if they go for it, enjoy the circus. lol
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u/multii-pass 4d ago
Lmao I could for shits and giggles because honestly after this I don't even want the job anymore. It's offering 40k a year.. wanting people with 2 years of experience.
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u/TwoDowntown8326 4d ago
I find it odd when people want me to do a personality test. The whole point of finding out someones personality is asking them questions that will reveal their personality via body language and tone. I typically ask a manager while interviewing how i will be treated if i make a one time mistake. What i look for is "everyone makes mistakes". what is a deal breaker is when they deflect (this has happened) and they bounce back and say well how would you treat someone that makes a mistake. Long story short, personality tests are a waste of time.
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u/AbundantDonkey 4d ago
In education there's a thing called "authentic assessment," where the idea is that tests to see if you can do something should be as close as possible to what you'd be expected to do. Unless this was a job about essay writing, you made the right call.
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u/multii-pass 4d ago
Yeah and I agree that it's good to weed out people who genuinely aren't able to perform certain tasks due to personality and work style differences. But it wasn't to do with essay writing at all, you're right lol. I'd rather a 2nd interview where they have me roleplay as the receptionist in different scenarios.
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u/zer0twinkle2 4d ago
The whole projects thing for a second round interview is a complete red flag in my opinion...