I was invited to a 300-person cattle-call interview, and now the company wants to know why I’m not interested by Alison Green on March 18, 2019 A reader writes: I’m having an odd time with a company and was wondering what you thought of this process. I applied to a position on LinkedIn for a communications assistant on Friday. On Saturday at 6 am(!) I got an email asking me to schedule an interview for Monday. On Sunday I figured why […] Read the full article →
was this interview as bizarre as I think it was? by Alison Green on January 3, 2019 A reader writes: I recently went on my first interview in my field after finishing school two weeks ago, and the interview was odd in a few different ways. 1. Although I’m white with a British background on both sides, my last name is one that one would assume is Korean or Indigenous. The first […] Read the full article →
employer said I didn’t have enough “passion” when I couldn’t interview on a Saturday by Alison Green on November 20, 2018 A reader writes: I recently applied for a job and was excited to receive an invitation to interview. They were looking to fill the position fast and wanted to know if I could interview two days later on Friday. That was tight, but I moved forward since the job seemed like a great fit for […] Read the full article →
a job application asked me to rank if torturing a person was worse than prostitution by Alison Green on February 12, 2018 A reader writes: I’m trying to change fields from copywriting freelancer to something in the admin assistance sphere. It could be that my greenness is showing, but is it typical for applications to ask you to rate atrocities? After submitting a resume and cover letter, I was directed to fill in an online form. The […] Read the full article →
I’m supposed to write 23 mini-essays in 24 hours before an employer will even interview me by Alison Green on February 5, 2018 A reader writes: I am in the early stages of job searching and have a situation that I’m not sure is abnormal or not. I received the following questionnaire to complete after I applied for a director level job in the nonprofit/association industry. The initial request was to complete this within 24 hours. I was […] Read the full article →
why are employers so rude to job candidates? by Alison Green on July 5, 2017 A reader writes: I’ve been job hunting for about 18 months and I can’t handle all of the broken promises. I’ve had people make offers of help and then disappear. I’ve had interview offers rescinded (mostly involving scheduling conflicts until I find that the job has been filled). I’ve been told to follow up and […] Read the full article →
interviewer told me to clear the whole day for a phone call by Alison Green on June 14, 2017 A reader writes: I received a call back for a position that I’ve really been hoping to get. The job has pretty decent pay for what it is, and the location is somewhere I’ve been hoping to go for quite some time. However, the person I spoke with informed me that I wouldn’t be able […] Read the full article →
how to deal with a bad interviewer by Alison Green on June 7, 2017 A reader writes: I recently interviewed for a position that I think I’m under-qualified for. The position is to be a dean of department at a university which requires 7+ years experience in a similar post and a great deal of knowledge about financial markets. I graduated from the top ivy league school in the […] Read the full article →
flaky interviewer is causing child care problems by Alison Green on February 10, 2017 A reader writes: My husband is a stay-at-home dad for our 6-month-old daughter (amazing!) with events experience in a notoriously flaky creative industry. When he’s worked with other companies in the industry (some small and independently run, others pretty big and established, but trying to maintain a scrappy vibe) he’s had lots of rescheduled meetings, […] Read the full article →
company wants references from “coworkers you didn’t get along with” by Alison Green on October 5, 2016 A reader writes: I’m currently interviewing for a new position with a company that works remotely. Over the past two weeks, I’ve had 10+ video calls with every member of the small team, along with a bunch of unpaid work tests that have included everything from client proposals to personality tests. It’s starting to feel […] Read the full article →