You are probably responding to @doschicos reply #137, since I did not respond to your Harvard interview reply #134.
I definitely experienced ghosting while job hunting. Once pretty egregious case was a company where everything was going super-well. The hiring manager flew to my city just to meet me, and a 1-hour meeting turned into a 3-hour meeting.
Immediately after, he had me interview with several members of his team and gave me great feedback every time. Then nothing for a few weeks. I reached out to him and he said, “definitely want to move forward, send me your schedule for next week so we can talk”. Then nothing for another few weeks, repeat 1 more time (with the same “definitely want to move forward” message) before I gave up.
And the funny coda is that a year later, an HR recruiter from that same company reached out to me to see if I was interested in interviewing. I didn’t respond.
Some firms go to greater lengths to find talents they’re looking for. The most extreme example is perhaps Citadel’s Datathon. Participants, ranging from college freshman to post-doc, are pre-selected based on their resumes and performance on a 1-hour online exam. You’ll only be notified of your qualification 3-days ahead of regional competition to form your team of 4 qualifiers. In each regional competition (6-hour long), 25-30 teams are presented with lots of data and a real-world problem to solve. Winners of regional competitions go on to compete in a national competition. Some of the most lucrative job opportunities are offered along with prizes.
That doesn’t sound anything like my son’s Harvard interview. Unless you are talking about a job interview for Harvard?
My son’s interview to be a student was quite funny after he told them Harvard wasn’t his first choice (MIT was), so he hadn’t applied SCEA. After that, his interviewer spent most of the time trying to persuade my kid that Harvard was better than MIT. (Amusingly my kid got into Harvard and was rejected from MIT.)
Forget about padding your resume with appropriate keywords or silly questions. This is coming to the HR departments in not so distant future.
After yet another email to the recruiter at one of the companies, she was told the position was filled. She decided she is done with the other company that is ghosting her, doesn’t even want to send them another email asking status. This week she had an interview with a company where she spoke with 6 people on site and the CFO over the phone. Getting a job is a lot of work.
I’d just quickly say “Rayleigh scattering” and look at the interviewer with a “is that all you got?” look. Because it’s a pointless question.
Most of the companies that started this trend have given it up. I spent 25 years with one the world’s leading consulting firms and we actively avoid such silliness. Interview training specifically included guidance to avoid them.
Google’s Head of People Operations Laszlo Bock - “We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.”
When I was interviewing out of undergrad engineering, I was asked “what’s the triple point of water”. Not the definition, the actual temperature and pressure values. Fwiw, I did remember it from Thermo.
What kind of tree would I be? Giant Sequoia, because they’re awesome. Animal? Black Panther, same reason.
She just got another timed SQL test to do from another company. This before speaking or emailing with anybody (just after putting in her application).
So, this timed test ended up being a coding test for data engineers when she applied to an analyst position. The email says analysis test with 4 questions but the link sent to her is a coding test with 2 questions.
UGH - this is so frustrating, she set aside time to do this today and it is a bust! All of this without ever hearing from a single person in the company (just this take a test email which is wrong).
I can’t believe that this way of recruiting is an effective way to find employees.
OH, and it said in the email you needed an hour and there is a one hour sample test and a one hour real test, so you really need two hours.
True that. Also, most of the chess players I know refer to “matches” and not “games” when playing otb chess.
@kiddie unfortunately that does seem to be the trend in a lot of industries where there is a lot of competition for limited places. Companies are increasingly using on-line screening beyond just a resume review. For S’s application for a summer internship at a consulting firm, they asked him to put together a pitch with a scope of services and deliverables based upon a set of given facts. I think he spent almost a whole weekend working on this. For this summer’s internship applications in the finance field, after sending in his resume, there was a a video screen (not an interview) where he had to answer various questions through a video connection, then a phone interview before a full day of in person interviews. The kid is not a finance major (not even offered in his college) but was advised to brush up on company and stock valuations as well as how bonds and options are priced. He spent more time on this process than on his classes it seemed.
next step for this company is a “google hangout” type interview where she has to solve a problem and then talk about a problem she solved at work. Still no human contact - this invite came in another email. This from the company with the wrong test that she couldn’t do yesterday.
The bizarre interview process continues. She has an interview next week with two people at a company. They have very distinctive names. She looks them up on Linkedin and both of them have as their latest job that they are working at another company. So, they must both be new to the company and haven’t updated their Linkedin to say where they currently work.
Perhaps this is another reason why millennials are poorer than their parents were at the same age – good jobs are now harder to get. Getting a good job now during low unemployment times appears to be about as difficult as it was a generation ago during a recession.
The bizarre company was quick to send her a “we are no longer interested” email the day after the phone interview (she had already decided the job was not for her - everything about that had been so strange it really rubbed her the wrong way). She still has not heard back from the company that had her phone interview with the CFO (after a half day on site) and it has been over 3 weeks. Obviously she didn’t get the job, but it is still rude. She has an on-site scheduled with another company where she has to do a case study that she submits before the onsite. So much time and energy involved in job hunting today.
There is a whole niche industry that lives off this BS. And HR departments figures out that they can create job security for themselves by insisting that hiring has to be an elaborate ritual involving such songs and dances.
@kiddie I wouldn’t be so quick to write off the job since it has been 3 weeks. The current job I have I did a half day with 3 people, one of which was a good friend of mine (she was also the hiring manager) and was assured by my friend, before I even applied, that the job was mine for the most part. Three weeks later I received a call asking if I could be at the office the next morning as the CEO was in town and wanted to meet before anything could move forward. I met with him and it was another 2 to 3 weeks before HR had done their thing and contacted me to finalize.
Once HR was done they were suddenly in a big hurry to get me to start and accepted (but didn’t like) that I was committed to my current position for another 4 weeks. Corporate America today seems like a lot of waiting until the show is on their foot and then it is now now now.
She is probably the second/third/fourth choice hirable applicant, so they are making offers to those they prefer over her. Think of it like getting waitlisted after applying to a college, but with no notification of that fact.
Any good job should be considered a “reach” for an unconnected applicant. The days when low unemployment rate meant an employee’s market are long gone – now applicants should probably take the first acceptable offer they can get instead of trying for something better, since it seems to be permanently an employer’s market.
Probably another reason why millennials are, on average, facing downward economic mobility compared to their parents.
In my neck of the woods, unemployment IS very low and it is an employee’s market. I think there are many parts of the country where this is true. Jobs are going unfilled.