Interview Nightmares: Shady Co. Inc. DBA, LLC
This story is truly a nightmare in every sense of the meaning. An incompetent “owner” is only a very small part.
Background:
A company that purported to be a technology company that has relationships with many large companies contacted me for a sales position. They found my resume on the MI Works! Website I’ve had my resume up on the site for over 2 years at this point and figure well at this point I’m not in any position to say no to a recruiter for any job.
I had picked a nice quiet time and gathered my notes for the coming phone interview. Looking at the clock I realize its not a few minutes after our appointment. Then 10, 20, oh well I guess they blew me off.
Suddenly the phone rings the lady that was supposed interview me was about a half hour late.
A bit relieved that she did call I listened to her and answered all of her questions to her satisfaction. I had a bunch of questions since I’d never heard of this company and information was basically non-existent. She told me she would have to have me meet with the partner of the company out in Lansing.
What Happened:
I drove to a small office building in Lansing that had a for sale sign on it (which wasn’t reassuring). When I walked into the building I asked if Bob was in and that I had a meeting with him in 15 minutes. One of the ladies working in the office said “Oh Bob isn’t in!”. Worried hoping again that I didn’t get bumped off this guy’s schedule I asked if they knew if he would be coming back,”I have no idea.” was her response. Just what I wanted to hear.
Figuring I had another 15 minutes or so I just sat down and started reading a National Geographic Magazine that was well past a current subscription, while whatever soap opera the office ladies enjoyed blared on the TV above my head.
About 15 minutes later I notice a car pulls into the driveway and a few people get out of the car. A couple of people walk into the building and chit chat with the ladies working. They ignored me and another lady that looked like she was also there for an interview. After another 5 minutes one of the guys asks if the lady was Dawn and then he asked her to go to another room.
Another 5 or so minutes pass and the other guy finally comes back and says he is Bob and finally invites me to interview with him. He says I can follow him back to his office at the end of the building which had poorly painted over prior business names on the walls. Before we head back he grabs a can of spray disinfectant and starts spraying giant clouds of it into every room we walked past, and I tried to stay out of the cloud in the hallway.
I finally sit down and Bob starts out by asking me for my resume which I provided for him. He starts to look it over with a blank look and then asks me to start telling him about myself. As I start talking he realizes he needs to make a phone call, so he swivels around in his computer chair to his land line phone and quickly turns to his computer to find a number. He tells me to keep talking and then he turns in his chair pulling the cord and pulling the receiver from his desk crashing onto the floor of the office. He still tells me to keep going on.
Bothered by this entire turn of events I keep trying to tell myself that maybe this is a real opportunity, when I see what had to be a big ant crawling around on the desk in front of me. I look down again and think no I must be going crazy when suddenly Bob says “Oh I hate ants!” and starts slamming his notepad down on them reaching across the desk towards me where the ants where crawling around.
I tried to compose myself when I looked at the job description I printed out and asked him to elaborate on a couple of items for me. He looked at me shocked as if I was playing a game with his job description. He asked me to see it, and I said “I’m reading this verbatim it’s your job description”. To which he replied “I know, I just want to see if for myself.” probably for the first time ever.
He tried to come up with something and he just came across as incompetent. I asked him if he was just a partner in the organization and he told me that in fact he was the CEO.
Well you must be a pretty busy guy and work a lot that’s great.
No, I’m the CEO I don’t do any work he said with a sly smile.
What we Learned:
Listen to your gut if it doesn’t feel right, than who cares about the opportunity. For instance when the person interviewing you on the phone can’t describe the company to you in a couple of sentences than it means one of two things. The company is not real and somehow a ploy to harvest your information, or the company is so poorly run that no one knows how to describe it, or what it does. Again both of these are signs that you do not want to work for said organization. Don’t walk away from these types of “opportunities” RUN away from them.
We know we’re not the only ones who have had terrible interviews, share your interview nightmare with us.