What's going on?? (Job application)

I left my temporary contract (I was working in digital forensics) because I saw a lot of things I wanted to un-see. I had just passed an interview with an American company based in the UK. Excellent! (I thought). I handed in my resignation - I was going to hand it in even if I didn't have another job to go to... I was sick of seeing illegal material.

Then Company X told me: "So now you've passed interview #1, we'll set up interview #2"

Me: "Huh? How many interviews are there?"

Company X: "Three in total".

So I was penciled in to do a second interview. I turned up for the second interview and unfortunately, not all of the people interviewing me were there (3/7 showed up). Yes...7 people were supposed to be interviewing me via webex. I felt like I absolutely smashed the interview. Everything they asked, I answered perfectly. It was probably the best interview i've had. Then, at the end of the interview, I was told the following...

Company X: "Now unfortunately, not everyone who should have been here to interview you was here. We don't want to punish you, but we might have to re-run this interview again"

Me: Oh, ok.

It has been approx 3 weeks since that and i've sent an email and called up today and have been told that they will get back in touch once they have feedback. I've now been unemployed for 4 weeks. As I mentioned - I was planning to leave my contract job anyway, but, i'm stuck in limbo now. I've had a few recruiters contact me for highly-paid contracting roles and a few permanent roles, but I was very much after this role.

Is this normal? Do companies not value potential employee's time? I applied for this job 8/9 weeks ago and 8/9 weeks later and there might still be 1-2 more interviews to do!

P.S

The role i've applied for is a permanent job which is what i'm looking for - something long-term rather than just a contract role.

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Comments

MrAgent

I feel for ya man. If it were me, I'd take something ASAP as to have some income. Who knows if you'll even be offered the position for sure.

si20

MrAgent wrote: »

I feel for ya man. If it were me, I'd take something ASAP as to have some income. Who knows if you'll even be offered the position for sure.

Thanks, you're 100% right. I think I need to take whatever offer comes my way because at the moment, nothing is certain. Tough times it has to be said!

NetworkNewb

si20 wrote: »

Is this normal? Do companies not value potential employee's time? I applied for this job 8/9 weeks ago and 8/9 weeks later and there might still be 1-2 more interviews to do!

Not unheard of from my experience.

scaredoftests

Send the resumes out and don't wait for them.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Don't put all your eggs into one basket before you have that offer. I'd keep interviewing elsewhere and moving forward. As much as you would like that job, with how slow it's going you may be looking at another month or two before they even make a decision. Or, they could have a hiring freeze for the rest of the year when the new budgets get approved for 2017. In the meantime, keep your skills up and work somewhere.

networker050184

It seems to becoming more and more the norm these days. It took about eight weeks and five interviews for my current job. Some of them one on one, some panels with ~five people. In the past I've gotten an offer after one phone call.

JoJoCal19

Experiencing the same myself. Companies seem to be taking their sweet time with the whole process. And these are internal corporate recruiters I'm dealing with. Send me an email, I respond fairly immediately then get the response like 3-5 days later, rinse and repeat.

cyberguypr

We have some stupid break in our internal processes that have resulted in the famous "sorry, you took to long and I already accepted another offer". We blame HR and I am sure they blame us. Somewhere in the middle is the truth. For example, we asked them for phone interviews for 2 candidates (this is ALWAYS the first step). Next thing we hear they were invited for a face-to-face that we were not expecting, and of course, the day most of the team is telecommuting.

TLeTourneau

Fairly normal for me, last time was 4 interviews in a combination of 1-1 and panel. Took about 3 months total.

si20

Thanks all. It's shocking. These companies don't seem to realize that we need to know asap.

dhay13

i interviewed for one about 3 weeks ago. they said they wanted to hire in 1-3 weeks. i still have not heard back either way.

not sure how companies expect people to wait for 3 months. by then i likely have either acceptd another position somewhere else or have changed my mind about leaving my current job.

my biggest complaint is when they don't call back at all. at least let me know it has been filled so i can move on. i interviewed for another one last week and have got calls on a couple of others but i really want this one and i think the interview went really well so i am holding off for a little longer before moving on. but a simple e-mail saying they went with another candidate so i can at least move on and forget about it.

TheFORCE

Dont wait around,keep applying and something better might come along.

jabney

Never wait until you have the offer.

BradleyHU

keep applying...never put all your eggs in one basket, even if it's the one you want the most....

it's a buyers market in the job hunt, companies can cherry pick all they want...there's a ton of well qualified(as well even more unqualified) candidates applying every single day

BradleyHU

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Experiencing the same myself. Companies seem to be taking their sweet time with the whole process. And these are internal corporate recruiters I'm dealing with. Send me an email, I respond fairly immediately then get the response like 3-5 days later, rinse and repeat.

FACTS!!! As much as I'd rather deal with an internal recruiter, this game they play is beyond infuriating...

CE1028

pretty normal, I'd say. I've seen plenty of companies interview people, like them, but then turns out there is a hiring freeze.

I'd always recommend never leaving a job until you have another one (guaranteed)

si20

dhay13 wrote: »

i interviewed for one about 3 weeks ago. they said they wanted to hire in 1-3 weeks. i still have not heard back either way.

not sure how companies expect people to wait for 3 months. by then i likely have either acceptd another position somewhere else or have changed my mind about leaving my current job.

my biggest complaint is when they don't call back at all. at least let me know it has been filled so i can move on. i interviewed for another one last week and have got calls on a couple of others but i really want this one and i think the interview went really well so i am holding off for a little longer before moving on. but a simple e-mail saying they went with another candidate so i can at least move on and forget about it.

That has happened to me a lot - it's beyond frustrating! I don't understand the logic behind it. Even a generic email to say thank you for applying but we have filled the position would be enough.

JustFred

si20 wrote: »

That has happened to me a lot - it's beyond frustrating! I don't understand the logic behind it. Even a generic email to say thank you for applying but we have filled the position would be enough.

I accepted a long time ago, that most will not reply. Not even a simple auto generated reply. You just learn to move on. Don't waste time dwelling on it, its not good for your health in the long term.

j1mgg

It is very frustrating, even worse when it is an recruitment agent as it wouldn't take them two seconds to just say you never got the job.

For the amount of time you have to take out for these interviews, you would think they can spare two seconds to send a quick email saying you never got the job. I agree if you never even got an interview then no email is required.

I hope for the day when i have enough experience to start contracting.

networker050184

si20 wrote: »

Thanks all. It's shocking. These companies don't seem to realize that we need to know asap.

You have to look at it from their side of the table as well. Its not their fault you don't have a job and need an answer ASAP. They want to take their time and hire the right person rather than the first person. That can take time.

IronmanX

I see this OP is from the UK and doing an interview for an American company.
I'm Canadian and think its odd how many people say they have 4 and 5 interviews for a job.

I've been working in IT for 12 years now and I have never had more then one interview. I've had to do tests as part of the interview process a couple of times but those all took place while i was there for the interview.

NetworkNewb

IronmanX wrote: »

I'm Canadian and think its odd how many people say they have 4 and 5 interviews for a job.

I've been working in IT for 12 years now and I have never had more then one interview.

Well, to be fair, whats an IT job in Canada? Troubleshooting why the tap hooked to the maple tree stopped working?

I kid I kid

The most interviews I've had for a position is 3. I've had the process take 2-3 months to get through all of them before though.

IronmanX

NetworkNewb wrote: »

Well, to be fair, whats an IT job in Canada? Troubleshooting why the tap hooked to the maple tree stopped working? I kid I kid

Its not easy looking after a maple tree network.
Maple+Syrup+Tap+Lines+by+Ron+Hay+flickr.png

NetworkNewb

Lol, that's awesome

scaredoftests

LOL..too funny

IronmanX

That is really how large places collect maple syrup. Carrying buckets around when it takes 40 buckets of sap to make one bucket of syrup.

3 weeks after the interview for them not to have made a decision doesn't sound too bad but if they are going to do more interviews seems like the process could go on for awhile.

TechGromit

si20 wrote: »

I left my temporary contract (I was working in digital forensics) because I saw a lot of things I wanted to un-see. I had just passed an interview with an American company based in the UK. Excellent! (I thought). I handed in my resignation - I was going to hand it in even if I didn't have another job to go to... I was sick of seeing illegal material.

So you quit, your contract didn't end yet? Sorry to say you placed yourself in a bad position, it's far easier to negotiate a better salary because HR knows being unemployed, your far more likely to accept the first offer they throw at you. Having a job, even if it's a temporary contract position (something you shouldn't tell prospective employers), places you in a far better negotiating position. Also your not sweating every week your no earning a paycheck.

Unfortunately HR often drags there feet when trying to find candidates, it seems the bigger the company, the longer it takes to get an answer if they will hire you. On average it takes 52 days from the time a job is posted to the time they hire someone. The Federal Government is even worse, it takes an average of 105 days, that's for a Federal Government employee, a Government contractor can get hired in little as a few weeks.

si20 wrote: »

I've had a few recruiters contact me for highly-paid contracting roles and a few permanent roles, but I was very much after this role.

Unless you have the cash to wait around with no income, I would start talking to these recruiters, try to line something up you can live with, if this job comes through, you could always quit, after all that's the one nice thing about contracting gigs, you can leave at any time, just as they can lay you off at any time.

Oh and one final point, do not tell the recruiters your really waiting for another job to come through, best to keep that information to yourself. Unless your independently wealthy, you don't want to say anything that will scare potential employers off.

cmztech

Another possibility is that they have X amount of dollars to fill the position and a deadline to spend the money before it is no longer allocated. I believe some companies wait till the last minute before they call it. In hopes that the perfect unicorn will appear out of the clouds, maybe?

All of the excuses aside, I agree 100% that not receiving some type of follow up to let you know what is going on, is still not cool.

MrAgent

Did they ever get back to you?

Nans

si20 wrote: »

It has been approx 3 weeks since that and i've sent an email and called up today and have been told that they will get back in touch once they have feedback. I've now been unemployed for 4 weeks.

Trust me a Big Vendor for Network Equipment interviewed me in March. I applied for a job and the next day recruiter talked to me, made me a take a test and two days later talked to manager over phone. Then 1 week later went for one to one interview with 7 people for 5 hours. When asked he said, they would contact me in few days. THAT's IT, 6 months later I am still waiting to hear back from them. Contacted recruiter, Manager no one replied back, being one of the key players in industry they never cared, and we better get used to it. The main point is if I we ever sit on the opposite side of that desk don't let this happen.

In my honest opinion keep searching. A wiseman once told me "Stop applying only after you accepted the offer". Good Luck keep us posted