OMG So happy I did not get the job! Never happier. I mean, it’s not only that I didn’t get the job, it’s the fact that I got the 2nd interview pulled out from me at the last minute. Okay, not the last minute more like the 12th hour at noon right before the 3pm interview.
There were too many yellow flags waving going into this.
No state agency makes a notification that they would like to interview you the day after a posting closes.
No one can work that fast - they’ve either not done their due diligence in reviewing applications or something else is brewing in the background which has forced their hand to expedite an interview.
In the same notification that you’ve been selected for an interview, a notice that an interview has already been scheduled for you exactly one week from today at 8am.
Providing no choice of time or date for your interviewee is not a good sign. If you like a candidate you will provide that candidate a range of time slots to interview. It is a waste of your (employer) time scheduling an interview with someone you like if the interviewee can’t make that time.
No information on the structure or length of the interview was provided prior to the interview.
At the time of the interview they opened by saying it was a 30-minute interview with 9 questions. What the hell can you ascertain within 30 minutes? That’s only 3-minutes per question-AND-answer, and leaves just enough time for the interviewee to ask one follow-up question with the remaining 3 minutes. No sensible evaluation can be made within this short time frame.
Request the next day (Friday) after business hours for a second interview.
State workers don’t “work” a lot. Getting a voicemail-email after 8pm on a Friday is dubious. This email was requesting a second interview on Tuesday or Wednesday from 11:30am-12:30pm of the following week. That’s less turnaround than the first interview but at least, hey, this time they give a choice of two times?
A 10-minute presentation of a 12-month business plan
This one’s not so bad. But the verbal communication on Friday night from the hiring manager that the second interview would entail a 10-minute verbal presentation preceeding a Q&A conversation with the regional director, then followed by instructions with less than 24 hours to interview that the regional director requires a formal hard copy business plan for the interview is bad.
That’s 50 seconds presentation per month. How do you expect to develop and present anything of substance with so little time to prepare and present?
Cancelling the interview with less than 3 hours to go and then readvertising the position.
Upon seeing my sample business plan the hiring manager sent an email stating it wouldn’t suffice for the regional director and he would be cancelling the interview. Seems like the hiring manager was more under the gun to present someone to the director and was more concerned out of fear of being embarrassed by the interviewee’s sample plan (rather than truly putting a candidate forward and allowing the potential for success). On such short notice you call and leave a message to deliver the important news. But apparently the person who was being cancelled was not important enough and the other guy delivering the news wanted to save himself.
Dodged a bullet in this one. Probably walking into court with a King who always has his hand on a gun, and the captain of the guard went out looking for the recently executed incumbent’s replacement to present at ten arms’ lengths.
This is my happy face after receiving news of the abrupt cancellation.
My status remains, yours faithfully - unemployed.
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