Long review…but worth reading….
This company's HR recruiting department is a hot mess! I applied and got a response that they wanted to interview me, with a question about availability. I responded with M, W, and F and times. They sent back T and Th dates and times I could not make. I declined, and then the mess started. I received multiple invites for times that didn't make sense; some in the past, some began at the same time the email was sent. It went downhill from there.
After a few exchanges, I explained via email that I was no longer interested due to the inability to schedule the interviews. Within hours, I received an apologetic email speaking of do-overs and stating that the difficulty resulted from the recruiter being requested to simultaneously schedule two interviews and not the usual single mirror-fogging intro. Heck, I even got a call from the recruiter's boss confirming that this was not like them; they were better and blah blah blah.
I understand process improvement, learning scales, and bad days. I am not perfect, nor do I expect others to be and acknowledge when amends are offered. I was initially impressed at the level of response and decided to answer back, saying that I understood and if they wanted to try to schedule again, I would be amenable. I addressed it to both these fine folks. I NEVER heard back from either one, including the gent who left me a message wanting to discuss their misadventures in scheduling. I laughed myself silly at their sincere need to share that this was not their culture when I got a generic "no thank you as we are moving in a different direction" email two days later, not signed by anybody and not from the folks with whom I had communicated.
In a previous email, they had included an NDA to be submitted prior to the interviews. From family who works in high-level HR, I was told that NDAs prior to interviews are now a thing, so that companies can request Glassdoor and other similar sites remove general and especially negative reviews regarding the interview process. I have reached a point in my career that I have no desire to play games and deal with incompetence on this level. This interview was not for an entry level position, intern or newly minted graduate - not that any person should have to put up with this level of junk.
Regardless, if this is the first interaction prospective employees have and is a representation of company culture and branding, what does the rest of it look like?
This company might be an up and comer, but I can tell you that I had reservations before the scheduling debacle, as there were several recent, negative reviews regarding their interview process, and they have all disappeared. I noticed that there is another bad review regarding the interview process today. I bet it won’t be there long. It must be that pesky NDA the folks signed. Thankfully, I never signed or submitted an NDA as they could not handle scheduling two interviews, to begin with. It makes me wonder how long this review will remain. Perhaps I should have listened to the sage advice in those now-deleted reviews. RUN….RUN, I say! Nobody needs this kind of treatment.