Have you ever gone on a job interview and within seconds wish you could teleport?

Why do employers lie? Some of these people just amaze me. On the phone/phone interview they say yeah you will be supporting X systems and Y technologies. Only to go in the interview and find out those are one off technologies you will be supporting and working with and really what they want is break fix or reset ninja. [You get the gist] [It varies so I don't want to come across as an extremist, but........]

How can you get the word out professionally and without any legal ramifications?

I am so tired of this.

The problem is not just one party, sometimes it's the HR dept of the company or the hiring manager or the 3rd party recruiter.

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Everyone

The job I have now was actually kind of like that, but not nearly as bad.

The job description, and talking to the internal recruiter, made it sound more like Engineer/Architect type of work, which is what I was after. Then during the interviews it became pretty clear that it was really more Operations/Support type of work.

Even though the Engineer/Architect work was what I was really looking for, it still seemed like a good opportunity (and has been so far), plus the pay and benefits are great. I'm already doing more and more of this type of work, and less and less of the Operations/Support stuff.

SteveLord

Robert Half sent me to a contract helpdesk position at the state's DNR. Within minutes of interview, it seemed more about being a secretary sitting at the front, than doing anything technical. I purposefully turned the interview south.

Ended up eventually working with the state, at a much better place. The person who interviewed me is now the state's CISO.

instant000

Yes.

I went to a job interview, and the interviewer made it clear that they weren't looking for people that wanted to advance themselves.

I took this as a signal that they didn't want me.

The Robert Half recruiter tried to call me later, to get me to go back for another interview at that place, and my answer was no, there wasn't a match.

ubermich

Not in IT, but once I tried to use a temp agency. My ONLY restriction was that I was not willing to be scheduled for Sundays (on-call is fine, especially with the ability to telecommute). I even made myself available for any shift Mon-Sat. They called me the same day and read me the description, 8-5 Mon-Fri. Perfect! The company calls and does a phone interview, then during the job offer they tell me the position is Thu-Mon.

Who didn't get the memo?

cxzar20

You could always post your interview experience on Glassdoor.

N2IT

ubermich wrote: »

Not in IT, but once I tried to use a temp agency. My ONLY restriction was that I was not willing to be scheduled for Sundays (on-call is fine, especially with the ability to telecommute). I even made myself available for any shift Mon-Sat. They called me the same day and read me the description, 8-5 Mon-Fri. Perfect! The company calls and does a phone interview, then during the job offer they tell me the position is Thu-Mon. Who didn't get the memo?

Why do these always turn into Robert Half nightmare stories?

cisco_trooper

N2IT wrote: »

Why do these always turn into Robert Half nightmare stories?

Because Robert Half is a no go. If I find out a position is through Robert Half I withdraw my application. If I know who the client is I let them know why.

IEWANNABE

Once you figure out that the overwhelming majority of employers don't have your best interest at heart, only then will you come to a point in which nothing surprises you.

cisco_trooper

ubermich wrote: »

Who didn't get the memo?

People don't get up and walk out of interviews enough. Everyone is desperate so they put up with behaviors that really shouldn't be tolerated from any party, employer or otherwise.

NetworkingStudent

N2IT wrote: »

Why do employers lie? Some of these people just amaze me. On the phone/phone interview they say yeah you will be supporting X systems and Y technologies. Only to go in the interview and find out those are one off technologies you will be supporting and working with and really what they want is break fix or reset ninja. [You get the gist] [It varies so I don't want to come across as an extremist, but........]

How can you get the word out professionally and without any legal ramifications?

I am so tired of this.

The problem is not just one party, sometimes it's the HR dept of the company or the hiring manager or the 3rd party recruiter.

Sort of….
I had an interview for a IT assistant position that mentioned it would involve desk top support, maintaining the server, changing back up tapes..ect

Well once I got to the interview everything went great when I was talking to the HR person, she seemed pleasant and really happy to work there. After talking to her I met with the IT director and things just seemed out of place. He talked a bit about the job, and the duties, which sounded great until he started talking about data entry. He kept talking about how there was these messages they got and how they needed to be answered and verified. He then went on to say he was a network engineer when he started his job and he thought he would be trouble shooting networks, but he was wrong. He started noticing that all these messages not being entered into their system. I just kept thinking it was a glorified data entry job…anyway they told me I wasn’t accepted and I was happy.
I still remember him saying how IT people typically don’t like doing a lot of data entry. So I think he kept trying to see if I would mind doing data entry. I’m not just talking a little bit of data entry…I’m talking about how he mentioned during our interveiw that he had messages building up in his email while we were conducting the interview.

BradleyHU

I remember last year in January when I was in between jobs, I had an interview at this MSP. The interview with the HR dude went well, but when the hiring manager came in, I felt like i wanted to leave right then. Dude was an uber douchebag, he paid me no attention during the interview, answering emails on his bb while I'm explaining stuff to him, cutting me off. He asked me some stuff I didnt know, but I could tell by his reactions, that he felt I was a bother. I'm super glad i never got offered that job, plus the pay is way less than where i started at my new job, which i got a month later.

pham0329

Had a phone interview where I was told it would be a network engineer position, with light server administrations...around 80/20 split. Went on the interview, and it was straight up system administrator...

it_consultant

cisco_trooper wrote: »

People don't get up and walk out of interviews enough. Everyone is desperate so they put up with behaviors that really shouldn't be tolerated from any party, employer or otherwise.

I have walked out of interviews. Here are some things I have said in interviews:

How do you feel about working long hours at a moderate salary? "I don't like it. Neither should you."
"You guys don't know what you want for this position, you will be lucky if you hire the appropriate person."
"The job description does not match what you are telling me now. I am not interested in this job at this point."

If they want a real professional they can call me. If the want a skilled person who they can pay like a secretary because unemployment us up, that is not me.

jamesp1983

cisco_trooper wrote: »

Because Robert Half is a no go. If I find out a position is through Robert Half I withdraw my application. If I know who the client is I let them know why.

x2. I've had 2 horrible experiences with them and never worked with them again after that.

MentholMoose

In general I don't regret going to interviews since at the very least I get interview experience. But occasionally I am not so sure. I created a thread about this a while ago and there are some good stories there.
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/53094-ever-walk-out-interview.html

One bad interview I had was at a mid-size business in the manufacturing sector. The hiring manager was late to the interview, which is usually a bad sign. The reason turned out to be even worse... he was busy fixing someone's printer! He explained that everyone had their own local printer and there were no network printers. I mentioned how at a previous job I had set up network printers and logon scripts and completely eliminated that kind of situation since everyone could print to multiple printers. His response was, "well projects like that are fun, but I need my guys to do real work". An example of "real work" his "guys" did was performing manual installations of Windows and all programs on all new desktops. He proudly proclaimed that his "best guy" could build four desktops at once!

They had no automation and did no imaging at all, I guess because he thought that wasn't real work, or maybe because it would be too much fun.

At the end of the interview he gave me some documents to fill out to go to the "next step", which I trashed. I wasn't too bothered by the fact that their IT environment was stuck in the stone age, after all I had worked in such an environment and got a ton of experience fixing myriad problems. In this case, however, the hiring manager's attitude and lack of openness to change killed any remaining interest I had in the position.

Devilsbane

cisco_trooper wrote: »

Because Robert Half is a no go. If I find out a position is through Robert Half I withdraw my application. If I know who the client is I let them know why.

Never worked for them, but working with them there seemed to be a screw loose.

N2IT

MentholMoose wrote: »

In general I don't regret going to interviews since at the very least I get interview experience. But occasionally I am not so sure. I created a thread about this a while ago and there are some good stories there.
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/53094-ever-walk-out-interview.html

One bad interview I had was at a mid-size business in the manufacturing sector. The hiring manager was late to the interview, which is usually a bad sign. The reason turned out to be even worse... he was busy fixing someone's printer! He explained that everyone had their own local printer and there were no network printers. I mentioned how at a previous job I had set up network printers and logon scripts and completely eliminated that kind of situation since everyone could print to multiple printers. His response was, "well projects like that are fun, but I need my guys to do real work". An example of "real work" his "guys" did was performing manual installations of Windows and all programs on all new desktops. He proudly proclaimed that his "best guy" could build four desktops at once! They had no automation and did no imaging at all, I guess because he thought that wasn't real work, or maybe because it would be too much fun.

At the end of the interview he gave me some documents to fill out to go to the "next step", which I trashed. I wasn't too bothered by the fact that their IT environment was stuck in the stone age, after all I had worked in such an environment and got a ton of experience fixing myriad problems. In this case, however, the hiring manager's attitude and lack of openness to change killed any remaining interest I had in the position.

That place is pure crap. Seriously I would of laughed at him and called him a joke. Arrogant about the 80's way of doing IT. What next adding water to the mainframe. He probably did his taxes with an abaqus.

Bozo the clown. This story made my day.

Method I wish I could speak to you about this beautiful event. Did he get giddy and excited when he was bragging on his technician building 4 machines at once?

MentholMoose

N2IT wrote: »

That place is pure crap. Seriously I would of laughed at him and called him a joke. Arrogant about the 80's way of doing IT. What next adding water to the mainframe. He probably did his taxes with an abaqus.

Bozo the clown. This story made my day.

Method I wish I could speak to you about this beautiful event. Did he get giddy and excited when he was bragging on his technician building 4 machines at once?

He seriously seemed proud about how well his IT organization operated as he was describing it. Meanwhile I was just flabbergasted about many things he said, and wasn't too interested in learning more. Another thing I remember was that he was quite confident that his high-end wireless network was secure since it was WEP-enabled (this was a few years ago, but still well after WPA2 was released).

rwmidl

A few years ago I had an interview with a local company set up by a headhunter I was using. I went in to the interview and the guy doing the interview spent the entire time reading his BB and not paying me much attention. After the interview I was introduced to what I guess was their CIO. He looked at my resume (I was interviewing for a sys admin role) and he said we think you'd be a better fit as desktop support. It didn't work out (I'm glad I didn't go there) but the guy who kept looking at his BB really ticked me off.

N2IT

rwmidl wrote: »

A few years ago I had an interview with a local company set up by a headhunter I was using. I went in to the interview and the guy doing the interview spent the entire time reading his BB and not paying me much attention. After the interview I was introduced to what I guess was their CIO. He looked at my resume (I was interviewing for a sys admin role) and he said we think you'd be a better fit as desktop support. It didn't work out (I'm glad I didn't go there) but the guy who kept looking at his BB really ticked me off.

That is completely unprofessional. I'm surprised he didn't break out a cheeseburger and start eating.

apr911

N2IT wrote: »

Why do employers lie? Some of these people just amaze me. On the phone/phone interview they say yeah you will be supporting X systems and Y technologies. Only to go in the interview and find out those are one off technologies you will be supporting and working with and really what they want is break fix or reset ninja. [You get the gist] [It varies so I don't want to come across as an extremist, but........]

How can you get the word out professionally and without any legal ramifications?

I am so tired of this.

The problem is not just one party, sometimes it's the HR dept of the company or the hiring manager or the 3rd party recruiter.

At least you knew to get out...

Back in 2008 (Summer, pre-recession), I applied for a job based on the description, went to the interview where I was told they supported X systems and Y technologies and had no indication to the contrary.

I was offered the position making about 10% less than my previous (but not current) position.
At the same time, I was offered a position elsewhere making about 40% more than their offer.

I decided to take Job A's offer because:
a. The cost of living was higher at job B. (By about 10%)
b. Job B would have required me to relocate further away from friends and family
c. I thought job A would be a better opportunity based on the job description and interview

So I took the job and learned within the 1st 2 weeks that the job was nothing as described. While I thought I would be some helpdesk/desktop work and mostly administering the network, servers and phone system, I found in reality the job was 99% helpdesk/desktop work, 0% networking (unless you count creating patch cables as networking), and 1% server and phone system administration.

Basically it was an IT department built of non-IT personnel but they did a decent enough job of faking it on first presentation (even the completely helpless end-users knew better after the 1st few interactions). They had 3rd party contractors they called when things broke with the servers or phone system and the third party contractor's did most of the admin work to begin with.

About mid-way through the contract my manager started making the job unbearable, giving me assignments without any direction and when I completed them in an unexpected (and often automated way) he would get upset and complain that that wasnt what he wanted me to do...

The two major projects that come to mind are inventory the company's desktop workstations (ran script that found alive IPs then ran a second script that used WMI pollers to get box information) and document the company's PBX (ran script to autodial at night and record first 10seconds of whatever voicemail picked up).... Manager wanted me to physically go to each computer and document it, he also wanted me to physically call each extension and talk to whoever picked up.

It wasnt all bad, I spent most of the time working on getting my 1st IT cert (MCSE). Thankfully, it was only a short-term contract-to-hire position and I bolted as soon as the contract was up.

N2IT

SteveLord wrote: »

Robert Half sent me to a contract helpdesk position at the state's DNR. Within minutes of interview, it seemed more about being a secretary sitting at the front, than doing anything technical. I purposefully turned the interview south.

Ended up eventually working with the state, at a much better place. The person who interviewed me is now the state's CISO.

Steve I would love to hear how you turned that baby south. If you don't mind a few liners in a private message would be fine or on the board here.

I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

SteveLord

I don't remember much. But I didn't do anything drastic or rude. I think I asked over and over about details with what the person in the position would actually be doing. And I think I just showed it with my body language that I wasn't too interested. Both of those combined sent the message I believe and made me appear as a less than ideal candidate.

themagicone

So I got one. I applied for a job that was for controls engineering. It was something that I really wanted to get into. Description listed things like setting up CNC machines, doing project management, etc. No where did it say "heavy lifting for 90% of the job" (back to this in a moment). I applied and few days latter I got an email asking if I would like an interview. Quickly replied with yes and my availability. Next email from them was a plane ticket to Chicago. Geez I was thinking they must of really liked my resume. No phone interview, nothing and they are already sending me to the main office for an interview. Day comes and I fly down to Chicago, they covered all the expenses so really no loss except time if it doesn't work out.

I get into the interview and the job went from being a controls engineer position to a service tech installing CNC machines. The service manager I interviewed with didn't even know the job they posted, he said he doesn't know what HR does but this is the job he was looking to fill. Come to find out they are flying like 30-40 people in for this position (waste of money). But anyways, came down to they said it would 3 to 6 months of just installs which is a LOT of heavy lifting. Well after 6 back surgeries no thank you.

N2IT

SteveLord wrote: »

I don't remember much. But I didn't do anything drastic or rude. I think I asked over and over about details with what the person in the position would actually be doing. And I think I just showed it with my body language that I wasn't too interested. Both of those combined sent the message I believe and made me appear as a less than ideal candidate.

Fair enough Steve. Sometimes the body language is all you need to let them know, NO THANKS.

badrottie

I would never, ever walk out of an interview. I view that as being unprofessional.

For instance, if you applied for an Enterprise Architect role, and in the interview process it clearly apparent it is really a Junior System Administration position, it is fair to politely thank them for the interview, politely decline/inform them that you are not interested in pursuing the opportunity, and then ask to end the interview.

I usually view a misalignment between the advertised job and what is presented in an interview as being attributable to one of two things:

1) A "bait-and-switch" approach where they want to attract top-tier talent, who needs the work (especially in this economy) and is willing to accept their offer (A strategy that ultimately is doomed, for many reasons)
2) Ineptitude in either the role definition requirements by the business unit, manager or HR department

In the first situation you know that the company may have ethical and moral "flexibility" in how they regard their employees. In the second situation, there is concern that the business has a disconnect or communication difficulties between business units, managers and/or staff. Neither is particularly enticing.

There is nothing wrong with being polite, courteous and professional in an interview. You can always talk with your friends, significant other or drinking buddies afterwards about how clueless, inconsiderate, etc. that company was later.

N2IT

badrottie wrote: »

I would never, ever walk out of an interview. I view that as being unprofessional.

Do you view them lying about requirements as unprofessional? If so do you tactifully mention this in the interview? On one hand I think you should just play along and then politely decline. On the other hand I view this as an opportunity to be a advocate for good hiring practices. Mentioning to the interviewer that what he is talking about and what the description said are complete different. Is this out of line in your opinion?

badrottie wrote: »

For instance, if you applied for an Enterprise Architect role, and in the interview process it clearly apparent it is really a Junior System Administration position, it is fair to politely thank them for the interview, politely decline/inform them that you are not interested in pursuing the opportunity, and then ask to end the interview.

Would you bring this up during the interview before it was concluded?

badrottie wrote: »

I usually view a misalignment between the advertised job and what is presented in an interview as being attributable to one of two things:

1) A "bait-and-switch" approach where they want to attract top-tier talent, who needs the work (especially in this economy) and is willing to accept their offer (A strategy that ultimately is doomed, for many reasons)
2) Ineptitude in either the role definition requirements by the business unit, manager or HR department

In the first situation you know that the company may have ethical and moral "flexibility" in how they regard their employees. In the second situation, there is concern that the business has a disconnect or communication difficulties between business units, managers and/or staff. Neither is particularly enticing.

Well said

badrottie wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with being polite, courteous and professional in an interview. You can always talk with your friends, significant other or drinking buddies afterwards about how clueless, inconsiderate, etc. that company was later.

Agreed, always take the high road you never want to burn any bridges. This is a small world and there are no secrets.

jlindner0202

Stay away from Robert Half! They suck moose balls. Take lying to a new level.

Sponx

badrottie

Just stating this from a 'Corporation' view... Most larger corporate companies have a disconnect/communication problem. Especially if the HQ of the company is in another state (where they base their hiring out of) and you will be working at a localized site. Communication (or lack of) is almost inevitable.

techinthewoods

themagicone wrote: »

But anyways, came down to they said it would 3 to 6 months of just installs which is a LOT of heavy lifting. Well after 6 back surgeries no thank you.

You should have taken the job. Lucky #7 back surgery might have done the trick.