After a slow and unprofessional referral process, my verbal offer was rescinded due to a sudden change in company policy.
I recommend you not waste your time applying; it was not worth the hassle.
I applied on November 17, 2017. I was referred by my spouse upon encouragement from a senior executive of Mobiquity, who explicitly stated that our marriage would have absolutely no bearing on the process. I felt especially optimistic about applying after hearing that the CEO wanted more female developers to join the Mobiquity development team.
Accounting for the craze of the holidays, I waited patiently for almost 2 months before my referrer had to re-contact the company about the status of my application, as neither of us had heard anything. This was on 1/8. On 1/9, the senior executive reached out to my referrer saying that he wasn’t sure what the hold-up was, possibly a lack of entry-level positions, but that he would check the status of the application.
On 1/9, I received a brisk email from senior HR stating “I wanted to follow up, as I am not sure if my prior email reached you.” However, I had been checking my email (inbox, spam and trash folders) religiously since I had applied in November and had not received a follow-up. Implying that I had missed an email was a very unprofessional way for a senior HR representative to make first contact. When asked for the prior email for record-keeping, she insisted that it was not important.
On 1/11, I had a behavioral screening with the HR representative, where I was asked a few questions about myself and my skills. I was even told that I would be a great fit for a particular team and to be on the lookout for further correspondence.
On 1/12, the HR representative reached out asking if I would be available for a technical interview that day. I agreed, and the interview was scheduled for 2 hours later. The setting for the interview was extremely unprofessional. The Zoom call was not private, so strangers kept jumping in and out, listening in on my one-on-one technical interview.
On 1/16, the HR rep contacted me early in the afternoon asking if I had a few minutes to chat. I told her I was free all afternoon and that she could call at her convenience. She did not call on 1/16.
On 1/17, the HR representative said she was busy, but would call me by end of day. She emailed me that evening saying that her meetings had gone over and that she would call me the next morning.
On 1/18, the HR rep called and I was offered a 3-month internship at minimum wage, at the end of which, I’d officially become a web developer starting at $40K. I enthusiastically accepted, despite the disparity between this salary and the minimum listed on their Glassdoor, and was told to be on the lookout for my contract packet. The HR rep also mentioned that I could “maybe start next week” (the week of 1/22).
On 1/22, after not hearing anything, I reached out. I was told not to worry, that the senior executive who encouraged me to apply was working on my contract, and that the HR rep would reach out to me with more information when she received it.
On 1/29, I still had not received anymore information, so I reached out again. There was no reply of any kind neither that day nor the next.
On 1/31, my referrer was contacted by the senior exec, asking him to jump on a call. The senior exec told him that they were rescinding my offer because of a new policy stating that Mobiquity no longer hires family members. This was surprising, given that several of my husband’s coworkers’ family members work at the company with them. Allegedly, the no-family policy had been created after I accepted the verbal offer. That’s right; even though I had already been offered the position and accepted it on 1/18, Mobiquity refused to honor the agreement.
To be clear, this was due to no fault of my own. The senior executive mentioned that he was also in the process of telling other employees that their family referrals were no longer acceptable. He assured my husband that the offer being rescinded had nothing to do with my skill set, and that I was still a great fit for the company. However, because of the new rule, they would now refuse to honor the verbal agreement we had made.
I can’t help but think that if this process was handled in a timely manner, the situation might have ended differently. Instead, their latency resulted in my not being hired due to technicality alone.
Obviously, I understand the reasoning behind the new rule and I would never want my employment to cause strife between other employees, but plain and simple, Mobiquity and I had reached an agreement before the policy was circulated and I feel that agreement should have been honored.
All in all, the entire process was a sad demonstration of bureaucratic incompetence. Would not recommend, regardless of whether you are family, friend, foe, or rando.
