Razorpay ghosted me after all the interviews promised to return back in april but still no update.

Software Developer

State Bank of India, dealt with an overly egoistic interviewer

Data engineer

UX/UI Designer

Nykaa. Ghosted me after the last round, didnt even bother to notify me with a mail.

Product Designer

DXC, HCL (2021, 2022). Both these companies are still waiting for higher approval for my expected package.

Software Engineer

Candidate experience is the first point of contact that shows the culture of the company. From recruiters ghosting to giving interview assessments that is actual work for the next quarter to  getti...

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Candidate experience is the first point of contact that shows the culture of the company. From recruiters ghosting to giving interview assessments that is actual work for the next quarter to  getting too personal about your life, what has been your worst candidate experience?

What are some horrible candidate experiences you've had? Name the company if you are able to

What are some horrible candidate experiences you've had? Name the company if you are able to- Grapevine

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I recently applied to Indian Fintech, first round went well. Got no response from HR for 3-4 days. Once I called her on 5th day, she told me that I had cleared first round and they will assignment next day. Assignment didn’t arrive for 2 more days. HR stopped picking my calls. After this I reached out to third party recruiter (who started the process initially). She contacted this company HR and they sent me assignment next day. 

I had to complete it in 48 hour strict timeline. Spent entire 2 days on it and barely slept. I submitted it on time. 

After this no reply from HR for 4 days. Finally I reached out to my interviewer from first round for help. He said he will remind HR. 

Next day I got call from HR that all open positions are closed and we will consider u in future. No feedback on assignment was given. Not even sorry for making u wait. 

Isn’t the only thing HRs need to be good at is people handling & professional communication?

What’s the worst interview process experience you had so far?

Hello people,
We are building a recruitment platform to make hiring easy and fun. Having worked with a recruitment startup, we weren't able to hire for our own team. Hire first, fire faster mode ON tha humara.

So, we found this gap mostly in the early stage startups who don't invest in their recruitment properly.

So can you guys please share your experiences with landing a job with early stage startups.

Rant about recruitment in startups

Generalist

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

For people who interview potential candidates for high level positions what was the worst interview you conducted?

I'll go first. I got a call for an APM role from one of the companies which did sound pretty sketchy and the recruiter was started bullying me into answering questions, when I asked to know more about the role. The recruiter was extremely unprofessional, and obviously the conversation was nowhere great. They however, did go ahead and sent me the JD and other links, etc to fill in and apply for the job. Mind you, I hadn't applied for the job. 🥲
It just was a pretty sour conversation which had left me in an uncertain situation. Any similar experiences?

Weird recruiter experiences

Asked for my expected CTC. I answered and they weren't happy with it. Said they could only give at 40% increment of current CTC and then asked for my current CTC. After hearing my current CTC they said I shouldn't be earning this much and that I was obviously making it up. Then asked to send over my salary payslip which I refused. Basically the HR started being extremely rude at this point stating that I was being unprofessional. I asked their salary budget for the role which they refused to answer. Then I asked if they were willing to hire me for a lower CTC which she instantly agreed and said she knew I was reasonable and I shouldn't have lied about my CTC. I then said good luck finding a candidate for that amount and hung up.

Product Manager

What has your worst experience been working at a job?

Engineering Manager

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Recently had a chance to interview at a pretty mature startup(moengage), a recruiter called me up, we set up a time and date for a machine coding round. I was pretty excited to be honest and looking forward to the interview.
Fast forward to the day of reckoning , I join the interview with my intellij set up, my pen and paper to draw the ERD ready and my mind full of design patterns, only to be confronted with two DS & Algo questions(i legit gave up the moment i heard ds), the questions were interesting and the interviewer chill but it blindsided me by a whole lot and I couldn’t solve anything.
It’s pretty weird that startups with so many resources at their disposal could be so out of sync internally.

Weirdest(worst?) interview experience

Recently, I underwent an interview process where the first round went smoothly, but things took an unexpected turn in the second round. The HR representative informed me that they hadn't even reviewed my CV yet, prompting a spontaneous "tell me about yourself" conversation. Despite feeling positive about the interview, I was ultimately rejected without receiving any clear explanation as to why.

Reflecting on the experience, I can't help but wonder what might have gone wrong. It's possible that the HR representative had already made up their mind about a preferred candidate, turning my interview into a mere formality. Alternatively, it's conceivable that the interviewer was fatigued after a long day of conducting interviews, leading to a less thorough evaluation of my candidacy.

Regardless of the reasons behind the outcome, it's disheartening to feel as though my efforts were disregarded. As candidates, we invest significant time and energy into preparing for interviews, hoping for the opportunity to contribute to an organization we admire. In situations like these, it's crucial for HR professionals to act responsibly and ethically, providing transparent communication throughout the process.

While I had hoped to receive feedback or at least a notification regarding the outcome, days passed without any communication from the company. The realization that I had not secured the position was disappointing, leaving me to contemplate the lessons learned from this experience and the importance of resilience in the face of setbacks.

Horror Interview Experience 😰

Dear Recuriters,

What fun you get in ghosting candidates? If you have no answers from your management you can inform the same. Now don’t say you have lot of job to do. Candidate experience is also your job isn’t it.

Recruiters why do you Ghost candidates?

Lawyer

I've noticed a pattern where HRs from mediocre companies are extremely arrogant and ask unnecessary questions. Whether it is from their tone of voice, to asking ridiculous questions about a candidate's personal life and things that are already on the resume, why do they act so holier than thou? Now FAANG adjacent companies and their HRs/ first point of contacts are always empathetic and very clear in asking sensible, relevant questions. Why don't companies realise that their first point of contact is what affects their brand and hiring unqualified folks makes it worse. Have you ever noticed this? What do you think can be done to make this/ candidate experience better?

Why are HRs from mediocre companies so arrogant?

HRs in mid places are usually coming from really small / unknown companies and feel like they’ve made it hence the arrogance. Folks in big/decent companies usually have come from wonderful education bgs and workplaces and if not, have worked hard enough to reach where they are. That humbles you, I feel.

Marketing Creative

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I’m interviewing with one of the FAANG company, the interview process completed last week and recruiter have ghosted me. What are some valid reasons for ghosting? They could have just acknowledged and said will get back with more information when they have, instead of ghosting. Would you like to share some of your ghosting stories. I’m really anxious to know about the outcome that’s why this rant.

Why does recruiters ghost candidates?

Welcome to IT Company Discussion's Private Community

So recently I interviewed in many companies including google, Microsoft, Amazon I have seen common pattern that HR not being transparent with candidates. They keep hanging candidates in between and not reply to text, email, messages, calls. Even if candidate is rejected why can’t they email or call to give feedback. Is this job really hard ?
“If I will get a chance to snap out one profession from earth I will snap out all hrs, recruiters out there.”

Ps:- Google ppl was very transparent throughout process one of best experiences for me .

What is wrong with HRs/Recruiters

Sharing my worst interview experience with Accenture...last week HR scheduled an interview but panel did not join. They called me day after and rescheduled interview. Again this time...same happened...I waited for 25 mins and left the meeting as panel did not join. Trying to contact HR but no response. All the efforts and time candidate put into interview are of no value to them😑.

Accenture Interview

P.S. Not GenZ, but relate to vibe as a concept

I've interviewed with multiple companies, and I'm starting to notice a pattern. 

Interviewers who:
- Have their cameras off
- Show up in old t-shirts, looking like they haven't washed their face or combed their hair
- Roll their eyes when the answer isn't what they wanted to hear
- Fidget around when you are speaking
- Look anywhere but at the camera
- Give in to itches all over the body 👀 
among many others 

If we as interviewees are expected to be presentable and excited, the least interviewers could do is put in a little effort to appear decent and engaged.

Is Interviewer vibe a thing?

Consultant

Recently gave a PM interview with a b2c saas company. I was asked to do a take home assignment. The interviewer has no intention of conducting the interview. He was late and he looked like he just woke up from sleep. 

The questions were all over the place. And he didn’t even spent 5 minutes going through the case study I prepared. 

I don’t know why people take interviews when they are not interested in it. Such a waste of time!!!!

Worst PM interview experience

Which company did you have the worst interview experience with?

Interview experiences

Founder

I’m looking for an internship. I already worked with a startup for 3 months which went fine. 
I’m in the “market” again  but I had some weird experiences.
Some of the interviews were too tough.
One of them literally said “I’ll be sending u the offer letter” and then ghosted me.
And one of them didn’t reply at all after the interview.
🥹

Internship interview experience

most of us have come across at least one of the following bad interviewer type: 

1. Not knowing why they are asking that specific question, which skill are you testing ?

2. Those who ask questions in a Google doc. It's the worst, the candidate ends up struggling to format whatever they write.

3. Have "YouTube" knowledge instead of in-depth understanding. Imagine the candidate asking you a question and hurting your ego.

4. Asking candidates to switch on camera, while keeping theirs off.

5. Staying silent, not being interactive, not giving any kind of hints.

6. Not putting any effort to understand the candidate's mindset or background, asking intro just for the sake of it.  You might work with that person, put some effort in, ok ?

7. Having a fragile ego, not accepting a different school of thought.

8. Just copying the question from somewhere & not knowing how to solve the questions themselves, giving hints which ends up confusing the candidate instead of helping.

9. Expecting the exact answer, instead of focusing on the thought process.

10. Asking Hard DSA questions in a one hour interview.

11. No proper intro, no setting the interview base, eager to just jump to questions.

12. Those who think interviews can only be for one hour, not keeping extra time. Who decided the interview will only be one hour ?

13. Not knowing how to format the interview.

Interviewing is a skill/art, please learn it, don't waste your or anyone's time. Imagine a skilled candidate not getting the job they want/deserve because you didn't know what you were doing.

It's better to treat the candidate like your other colleague and you are just brainstorming a problem.

Whenever I have come across a good interviewer, I have always ensured to tell them they are a good one.

Traits of a bad/inexperienced interviewer

Senior Software Engineer

Today, I had an interview for a job as a software developer. The person interviewing me started by asking if I could speak Hindi. I told him I could understand it but wasn't good at talking because I'm from South India. He gave me a mean smile, which made me feel really unsure of myself right away. 😔 We went on with the interview. He asked a question that was kind of a design question, and when I tried to answer, he didn't really listen. Even when I asked him some questions, he didn't give a good answer. He was busy with his phone, and it seemed like he wanted to say no to me. I'm feeling pretty down about it. 😞 I don't get why he acted like that, but now I feel dumb after doing the interview.

A bad interview experience 🤕

Team Lead

I had an interview today with a service-based company. The first round was conducted by someone who used to be a content writer but is now a community lead with no design background.

During the interview:

Interviewer: Asked me to showcase my proudest work.
Me: Presented a detailed walkthrough of a feature, explaining every design decision and inviting questions throughout.
Interviewer: Expressed high praise for my work and asked about my design system.
Me: Explained my design system approach, including the collaboration and cross-team communication it required.
Interviewer: Continued to be impressed.
Me: Thanked them.
Interviewer: Inquired about my salary expectations.
Me: Stated my expectation.
*Now things gets mad*
Interviewer: Criticized my design system as outdated and implied my work could be done by a beginner watching YouTube. Asked me to prove my worth was really upto the salary expectations.
Me: Pointed out that I had already justified my value through my work during the past 50 minutes.


It's disheartening that the interviewer discredited my soft skills and the experience I gained from two years of designing. They seemed to dismiss my achievements due to a lack of "full-time experience." It would have been more appropriate if they had asked follow-up questions about my portfolio. This experience felt like a waste of time, as the interviewer appeared immature and conducted the interview poorly, despite having over 8 years of experience. It's a disappointing and unprofessional approach to an interview.

Worst interview experience till date

Recently, I had a mind-boggling encounter during a senior finance role interview at a prominent startup. After impressing the Finance Director and Controller, I expected an interview with CFO as a logical next step. Instead, I found myself facing an Independent Director—a puzzling addition to the process, especially with a CFO in place.

What baffled me more was the interview's focus. Despite the role's clear scope within India, the Independent Director bombarded me with international tax inquiries, completely unrelated to the position or the company's operations. It felt like a ploy to glean free consultancy for personal matters.

This experience left me questioning the rationale behind hiring protocols. Why subject candidates to irrelevant interrogations by individuals detached from the role's purview? It's disheartening to witness such a flawed process at the hands of those meant to guide a company's growth.

What are some horrible candidate experiences you've had? Name the company if you are able to

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