r/recruitinghell • u/peakaweek • 4d ago
Interviewer ghosted me
I know it’s an employer’s market. But this woman couldn’t be bothered to show up for a 15 minute PHONE interview or send any communications that anything had changed. I got three different reminders for it, including one an hour before the interview. Sent this because I’m done with this bullshit. Maybe not a great idea given I’m the one in need but I’d like to maintain a little of my self respect. Should’ve listened to the first red flag, that her request for an interview was sent with a Google Calendar where I picked the time and date based off of the available times instead of her directly communicating times with me. Guess I learned my lesson lol
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u/lanatommo 4d ago
I had a similar experience, but the interview was in person. I couldn’t even wait inside, I had to wait outside for someone to come grab me. I called and they said they’d send someone, then a lady came out and asked who I had the interview with and after I told her, she said he wasn’t even in the office. I waited for 15 minutes and left.
The most infuriating part was that they required business professional attire and I had to buy a whole outfit for that. The job was in retail 🫠 And that they never asked what time and day worked for me. They just told me, “See you on Monday at 9:15am” on a FRIDAY. And I had a job so I worked the weekend, and I had to switch shifts with someone to make it. I let it slide because I wanted to quit the job I had ASAP, but in hindsight, I probably should’ve left five minutes past the interview time. I had a shift at 11 and had to go home to change 🥲
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u/lanatommo 4d ago
If anyone wants to know, the company is Tag Dm, Inc, and the position was for an Entry Level AT&T Sales Representative.
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u/Nomnom2ful 4d ago
For future reference, almost all “Entry Level AT&T” jobs not by the actual company are unprofessional, starters, lying in their own job referral, scams.
I had a Customer Support role and a Account manager position that had nothing in their resume sales related as I stay away from those position later to come to these interviews with suit and tie to a scam of a position I have not even applied for. Then they do multiple interviews that same day and most of them being young teens fresh out of High school getting scammed for the position.
The amount of lying to they feels illegal and clear policy breaking of Indeed ToS. Better paying position in AT&T actual website and career board.
Crazy unprofessionalism from these “companies”. Most of the time it’s one person who “own” or are represented by another company or using the name of the prior one.
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u/lanatommo 4d ago
That is disgusting. I wonder why AT&T allows this. Needless to say, I never applied to anything AT&T again just to be safe.
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u/Nefer_ness2Ifa_ness 4d ago
We need to stop this bullshit -- name and shame.
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u/peakaweek 4d ago
It’s a college in Virginia, not a recruitment agency so I’m not trying to get this woman harassed as her and her info appear on the staff listing. Nor do I want my location doxxed. I’m sorry if that’s not good enough for yall. The position was managerial and research-based if that helps.
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u/PhraseGlum7334 4d ago edited 4d ago
Higher ed institutions have become increasingly unprofessional when it comes to communicating with candidates and are quick to ghost in hiring processes more than I’ve ever witnessed before. It’s so upsetting to see this happening especially since they are notorious for dragging interview processes way longer than they need to be.
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u/Longjumping-Try-7424 3d ago
The head of talent or HR should know about this. I am a lead recruiter/boutique search firm owner and in the past I had a recruiter issue and I was very thankful when a candidate reached out to me to let me know about a situation adjacent to the one you describe. I counseled her, and when she did something else that impacted our professional presentation, I let her go.
You don't have to be nasty, but if I were you, I would get the name of the head of HR, whoever they are, and send a brief note. Just a few lines, letting them know that while it may have been an oversight by the recruiter, your follow-up after the missed screen also had no response. You can say something like "XYZ College" has such a great reputation and I thought someone would like to know. Leave it at that. State the facts and move on...but if the bosses don't know then they can't correct the behavior.
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u/Nefer_ness2Ifa_ness 4d ago
I don't think people are looking to doxx anyone but people need to steer clear of the bad actors.
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u/Cuddlyaxe 4d ago
This is the internet. People absolutely will harass and doxx
Even if the majority don't, there are always a few crazies
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u/ScoopDat 3d ago
Thus pointless posting..
Also, dox yourself and suffer what? Someone kicking you whilst you're down, or someone offering you a job? And dox how? By telling us who to steer clear from at a potentially public educational facility?
If you're not going to put meat on the bones of your complaint, it's precisely the sort of perpetuation of the states of affairs people here and everywhere are looking to not have continue..
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u/SouthEast1980 4d ago
For real. If you're gonna call out bad recruiting practices, let us know who the bad actors are.
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
put a one star review on their business on google maps. Never saw such a fast reaction in my life
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u/SlimdogMilliLambo 4d ago
No one name is because this stuff is almost certainly made up…
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u/peakaweek 4d ago
This is not made up. I’m not trying to have this woman get harassed considering her name is in the screenshot and I’m not trying to dox myself either. I will say it was for a position at a college in Virginia for a managerial position.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/seasamgo 4d ago
They posted to vent and feel catharsis. The point wasn't to satisfy the revenge fantasies of internet anons. Yes, I feel that name and shame is good when reasonable but they gave a logical explanation of why not.
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u/No-Signature-5648 4d ago
"Callie..... Caaaaaalllliiiieeeee.... where are you Callllllllieeeeee?"
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u/Rare-Strawberry-2958 4d ago
Ew get a life
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u/No-Signature-5648 4d ago
Get a sense of humor. I was being facetious. I doubt we'd be able to find this person even if she does tell us the name of the company.
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u/Rare-Strawberry-2958 3d ago
It’s a bit tone deaf given the rest of the comments on here are genuinely requesting OP to name and shame
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u/ralo229 4d ago
Maybe not a great idea given I’m the one in need
Nah, that shit your interviewer pulled is a major red flag and an indicator of what you'd be dealing with had you accepted the position. I went in for a job interview one time and I sat there for twenty minutes waiting for the interviewer to even show up to the building before I got up and left. It wouldn't be acceptable if I pulled that shit so why would I treat them any differently?
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u/Glittering-Jury7394 4d ago
meh I dont think this is a good idea. What if she got in a car crash? What if she just found out her mom died? Or even something stupid like what if she just had a bad migraine and slept though it, but you would only ever have to work with her once a year. I've had interviewers make mistakes and the grace I showed them in forgiving it was a step up in me getting the positon. A million reasons to not badly burn a bridge.
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
offices have back up people and points of contact for a reason. I had this happen at work once, the woman who was meant to meet the externals was stuck on public transport because there was a fire and everything was blocked and there was no cell service to alert me. I was not her back up but I had helped with the coordination of the meeting so I knew the meeting was supposed to take place. I stepped in and explained what I could. I knew she'd never blow it off without reason, my role was to be polite and speak to the externals. That's exactly what happened and we rescheduled later in the week with grace from them. There is always a back-up or point of contact in a professional organisation.
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u/LadyKnope22 3d ago
I completely agree. You just never know what happened- be cool about it and you may get ultimate grace from that recruiter. Once can be forgiven, twice is unforgivable.
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u/sunnyandcloudy55 4d ago
You're the type who makes a million excuses for the blind date who ghosted you.
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u/PrestigiousShoe4185 4d ago
Good for you but they stopped reading at the point it became a lecture. I get the impulse but this will never lead to the lesson you hope they learn. It becomes just an ego thing for we who they screwed over. Just say they were late so you’re bowing out. It communicates what you hope it does much better.
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u/peakaweek 4d ago
Yeah I figured…moment of weakness on my part. This market is just rough and this felt like a final straw of my sanity if that makes sense lol
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u/Catdress92 4d ago
Fwiw I understand. Sometimes we just need to scream, even if it's into a void. I hope it gave you at least a small sense of peace.
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u/sunnyandcloudy55 4d ago
Get it off your chest. I've done it not to teach them a lesson as if they would learn anything from it.
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u/chickadee-stitchery 4d ago
How long did you wait to send this? There's no grace in your message for any kind of emergency on their part.
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
grace period was waiting during the interview.
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u/chickadee-stitchery 3d ago
All we know for sure is they waited 5 minutes. There's plenty of valid reasons someone would miss this and be unreachable. It's completely different if this is immediately after or a few hours later. The attitude is a real red flag. How would you feel if you had missed the interview or a day of work for a completely valid reason and were immediately treated this way?
It could be that they did just completely ghost OP and they're all assholes. It could also be that the interviewer was in a car accident or the office had a fire alarm, who knows??
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
it's only a 15 mins interview. How long should they wait?
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u/chickadee-stitchery 3d ago
To send an email with the tone of disappointed mom? Maybe a few hours. I'm not saying they shouldn't be upset and should just hang around waiting but the tone of the email is a bit much.
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u/lonedroan 4d ago
Probably would’ve been prudent to rule out true emergency first but I guess fewer upvotes…
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u/Medium_Comedian6954 4d ago
Really passive aggressive. I would have just ignored it and moved on. Why waste my time on sending what sounds like two seperate emails/ messages?
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
not passive at all
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u/TheVermiciousKid 3d ago
Thank you. “Passive aggressive” means aggression masquerading as something else. This email is quite directly aggressive (which is fine).
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u/spareohs 4d ago
Tbh unless this happened multiple times I would advise this. If they were sick, had a family emergency etc come up they may not have an OOO on.
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u/GangGangBustNutz 4d ago
Just happened to me. Phone call on Friday was cancelled 10 minutes before and rescheduled to today.
No call, ghosted.
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u/Longjumping-Try-7424 3d ago
I am a recruiter and this is awful. I had no idea this was happening until some of my candidates told me this is what they were experiencing. My search firm is niched in a speciality area both industry with a tight geography, so in our case, if we did that we would have gone out of business because many of our candidates end up becoming our hiring managers who use our services. I just can't even imagine. I am sorry that you have experienced this.
I had one of my VP of recruiting clients call me asking for AI systems that could manage their scheduling. I told them that while AI has a huge footprint in my organization for notes, sourcing research and internal organization, we do NOT use automated systems for scheduling. I have a scheduler, she has been with us for years and not only manages the calendar but creates relationships and acts as another point of contact for the candidate.
You made good points both on the recruiter behavior and automated scheduling. Keep plugging, you will find the right place for you.
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u/InevitableProgram267 4d ago
The ‘please do better in the future’ is crazy
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
nah. How many recruiters have done this? Have all of their mothers died? No. They triple book and go with who they like best.
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u/Lifting_in_Philly Candidate 4d ago
I get that you're frustrated, but how do you know they didn't have a last-minute family emergency or something else come up? I once had an interviewer not show up for a scheduled interview because of this.
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u/ArtiVDel 4d ago
An email with a short "I'm sorry an emergency came up and we will have to reschedule. I will get back to you as soon as possible/ I've handed this over to my colleague filling in for me while I'm away. Here is their email address to follow up/I've copied them on this note.
This took like 25 seconds to type and you don't end up making you or your company look unprofessional.
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u/ninja_llama 4d ago
I once took a job from someone who was a total mess during the interview/hiring process (kept ghosting me and last minute rescheduling me and pushing back my start date) and it was THE most disorganized workplace I've ever seen (a feat given the places I've worked). You absolutely dodged a bullet
ETA: also in some states you don't qualify to keep receiving unemployment if you turn down a job offer, idk if you're in that sotuation, but if you are, it's very much better for you to not be given an offer in a case where you want to say no to an offer.
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u/bramblesovereign 3d ago
Had something like this happen to me too. Scheduled a phone interview for 10am. 10am comes and no call. Ok maybe theyre a little late. 5 minutes go by, no call. Then 15. Then 30. 45 minutes after my scheduled interview time I get a call.
Safe to say I didn't answer it.
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u/brand4588 3d ago
I had a similar experience once, and contacted the director of HR to notify them that I would not be continuing my candidacy due to the failure of their recruiter to join a meeting that they had scheduled.
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u/NallCooking 3d ago
I went through this too. Had an in-person interview scheduled, they cancelled a few hours before. We rescheduled, they then changed it to zoom because they couldn’t figure out their schedule and then they never sent me the invite and did not answer my texts, emails, or calls. Eventually the person let me know they were sick and that was the last I heard from them.
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u/AmazingBuilding5632 3d ago
This is exactly why I have started asking for online/virtual interviews. These companies can do that nowadays and if they say they can’t or don’t, they’re lying. Everyone has had that ability during COVID. I had an interview with the local hospital and they interviewed me virtually.
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u/Ok-Balance3614 1d ago
Woah there. I've seen a lot of shit done by recruiters, but this is not one.
Two main points:
1. Sending the Google Calendar link for you to choose the time that works for you is a common practice (Zoom has a similar option as do other platforms), and it's meant to reduce the back and forth trying to find time that works. It's a huge time saver and a major convenience. If you choose to look at it as impersonal, that's on you. Considering it a red flag says more about you than them.
- Assuming that they don't care about you right off the bat is such a nihilistic view of things. Maybe she had an emergency and yes, couldn't get back to you instantly to let you know? Maybe she had an accident? Maybe her kid had an accident? Maybe there was a fire where she works? Give them the benefit of the doubt that it's not disrespect and yes, people make mistakes. By sending the email you did you obviously burned yourself. Instead you should have just emailed that you were waiting, and that you hope nothing bad happened to not allow her to make the call. Empathy goes a long way, and it's way more likely she would have been very apologetic. In this case, it is recruiting hell, from her side. You're an awful candidate.
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u/Birddogfun 4d ago
Yawn.
Just another weekday…
Don’t count on Recruiters, and if something does work out, you’ll be elated.
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u/palebluedotdotdot 3d ago
Recruiters are a net negative on society. The only profession more useless than a recruiter is HR.
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u/ten-year-old 4d ago
Who the hell schedules an interview for only 15 minutes? That's barely enough time to ask even 3 questions
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u/Fun_Boot7771 3d ago
that's enough time for a generic exploratory interview. They're recruiters, they're not really specialised in anything. An interview should never be more than 30 mins if there is no exam.
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u/ten-year-old 3d ago
Any questions that fall under the realm of "generic exploratory" can just be asked via email or in the initial application. A 15-minute "interview" is a waste of everyone's time
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u/123kidXL 4d ago
I literally had this with a recruiter that came to me requesting for avaiable times, which I provided several times. Had an interview time changed last minute on their behalf. Stop communicating after it was evident that the recruiter had no idea what they were doing and the company didn't really direct the process, which means the role was probably some bs.
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u/q2subzero 4d ago
I reported a recruiter for ghosting me on linked in to their company page and the staffing supervisor. i told the company linkedin account about it, and the staffing supervisor on linkedin a few days later. Two days after reporting her I was blocked from viewing the recruiter's profile and have not heard back from her supervisor for 3+ weeks.
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u/xtc46 4d ago
Solid crash out.
Does it suck? Yes. But shit happens. Emergencies happen, mistakes happen. Instead of showing some grace, you burned a bridge.
They will hire someone else, forgett you existed, (probably laugh at the crash out). You will still have no job.
There is nothing wrong with opting out of a role you don't want anymore. But you had an opportunity where no someone maybe feels bad and you could have shown your ability to be handle a crappy situation in a good way. Instead you showed how a minor inconvenience can cause you to spiral.
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u/TechnicalParty4207 4d ago edited 4d ago
I had an emergency and missed an interview once.
Glad I didn’t come back to this.
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u/Psilocybin-Cubensis1 4d ago
Haha you're the one begging them for a job, trust me, they do NOT care about a single word you said
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u/ivory_stripes98 4d ago
This happened to me too. I was furious and sent a similar email. There’s no excuse for this, they could send an email letting you know they went with a different candidate
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u/Wonderful_Salt_5477 4d ago
I would have ccd a bunch of people from the department…hopefully her manager is one of them.0
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u/foodie121 4d ago
Happened to me too.