I worked with a recruiter who reached out to me, which was then passed onto another recruiter at the same agency, I worked with her all the way through. From the beginning of the interaction, the agency always dropped the ball. The recruiter never followed up, I would always have to follow up with her, she never called or sent emails punctually. When the recruiter is just winging it, that's the first clue. Then I was asked for a standard phone interview with a manager in that department. The recruiter repeatedly told me that the manager I would speak with was not too nice, approachable, warm...over and over again. She told me that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to initially crack a joke or try to get her to have a causal conversation. I'm no comedian, but a little humor (if applicable) always lightens the mood. But since the recruiter kept saying this particular manager was not a "happy" person until she broke her shell with you, just answer the questions plainly. I passed this phase and the manager set up a day for a final interview, face to face with the rest of the team. 3rd mistake. I wasn't given direction to where I was even supposed to meet until the evening before. Also, the agenda was not clarified and ended changing by the time I got there. The interview started with the manager I initially spoke with, but originally I was told I was going to meet with the actual hiring manager first, but that was modified. I met with the same hiring manager I spoke with and she certainly was not too pleasant, instead pretty pushy. I was scheduled for 30 min with her, for a big amount of the time, she looked down at her phone, out the window and was ill prepared (as she stated as well). I answered her questions, but at one point she kept asking, "can you provide more detail, more detail!" while trying to rush me. I thought I was pretty explicit but she seemed to want a particular answer that I didn't have. At the end, I asked her questions regarding the culture and she kept stating that they don't want individuals who only look after themselves and are overly competitive. I picked up that the environment wasn't too supportive but it was really every man for him/herself (I read the employee reviews and found out that I was right). That was pretty bizarre to me. I met with another set of employees, they seemed pretty normal. Next clue was when I met with some other manager (not on the agenda) who seemed kinda shoved in to ask me questions. This manager barely made any eye contact, kept looking down at her phone, distracted by the people walking by thru the window. She would ask ambigious behavioral questions that didn't have any definitive objective, she would start in one direction then rephrase and head into a whole other direction, kind of jumbling multiple undefined questions waiting for me to answer an unknown question. Obviously very impromptu and unprofessional. She kept asking questions she seemed to make up on the bat. Then the next and last interviewer was who I thought was the hiring manager, but ended up finding out from him, that the role rolled up under that first manager I met with. He was pretty pretentious. He sat right in front of me, heightened his chair and had a very stern and unwelcoming vibe/face. A question he asked which really stood out was, "do you plan on coming here to put this on your resume so you can just go to another company?" This question kind of stumped all of the other odd/rude questions, which were really unprofessional and gave off the worst vibe. This manager would talk and state his humble beginnings but you could totally tell he was nowhere near that (based on more of the convo/vibe). Overall, I believe I dodged a bullet as the reviews are pretty bad for this "organization" that hardly seems anything but organized. I had to follow up with the recruiter , who again was very unorganized and I stayed patient with her the entire time. She had gotten a preliminary update and asked me for recommendations from former managers/peer. She said the manager had claimed they really liked me and she wanted to FINALLY get "proactive". That was ironic as she never was even on time. I guess because she was making a buck off of me, she cared a little bit more. She stated she would finalize the decision with the manager and get back to me at a certain date...and you know it. She didn't. I had to call, email and text her. She finally called and left me a VM stating the manager decided to "pass" and didn't state why. But she was so convinced they were going to move forward with me? I suppose they changed their mind...? I tried to call her to thank her for the voice message with her update, but she dodged my call... Expendable, I guess. The silver lining, I ended up getting 2 job offers at other companies I was interviewing for at the same time. Good luck to you all!!
