I was recommended by someone in my network in early January 2018. I was told to apply via their corporate HR portal, which I did. After hearing nothing for 3 weeks, I heard back from my contact saying they hadn't seen my application come through yet, and that I should email directly as well as apply via AngelList. I emailed and filled that application out in mid-February, which finally lead to a phone screen on March 1st.
The phone screen went well (we ran over the allotted time, if that tells you anything), talking about my background and about what AB Digital was looking for. The next step was to talk to the technical lead, which would be handled by corporate recruiting. The hiring manager was going to be OOO for 2 weeks, so the anticipation was we would continue without her.
After 5 days without hearing from recruiting, I emailed the hiring manager, who followed up to find out the recruiter had called me without leaving a voicemail and didn't follow up via email. What happens is, as far as I can tell, pure insanity:
- Hiring manager put me in touch with the recruiter directly via email. Recruiter emailed me asking to call him that day.
- I replied, asking for a specific time to call. Got no response, so I called when it was convenient for me. Left a voicemail.
- 36 hours later, after hearing nothing, I emailed again, stating I'd left a voicemail and hadn't heard anything. I offered to use my Calendly link to schedule a time.
- Recruiter responded the next morning saying he'd call me that day. I wrote back asking for a specific time to make sure I'm available. Recruiter said he'd call at 3pm (on a Friday), which was a time that worked for me and I confirmed.
- 3pm? Nothing. 315pm? Nothing. 330pm? Nope. So I emailed at 340pm before leaving for my next appointment (and CC'd the hiring manger back in) notifying him that he'd missed the appointment, and that I'd tried several times to reach him and to set up time to talk and we weren't getting anywhere, so if there was anything I could do to make it easier, to let me know.
- Recruiter writes back at 350pm saying he was overbooked and he would call me shortly. He calls at 4pm (by then I'm busy), leaves a voicemail, and then emails again saying I can call him back before 430pm or Monday at 1pm or 2pm.
- I write back Saturday AM saying I'll be travelling on Monday so those times won't work and asked again if they would use Calendly to schedule.
- One week goes by, nothing. I email again, asking what the difficulty is, and expressing my frustration.
- Recruiter writes back: "Sorry, I tried contacting you and we didn’t connect. You say you are chasing me but you are the one being considered for the opportunity and should be accommodating and accessible. Let’s agree to move on and I wish you the best."
- I reply separately to hiring manager (who's been CC'd on all of these emails since the missed appointment) updating her that I've tried 3 times to schedule a time to talk to no avail, and that he missed the one appointment we had. I asked her what I'm supposed to do.
- I reply to Recruiter asking if there was anyone else in the department I could talk to, and if there was anything I could do to be more accommodating or move the process forward.
- Hiring manager apologizes profusely, says she'll talk to Recruiter.
- Hiring manager sends a reply to me stating that the Recruiter was off-put by my request to use Calendly, that I was expected to be _more_ accommodating after _he_ missed the appointment, and that due to this experience "souring me" on AB, they were going to remove me from the process for the time being, and that she was "sad to lose [me] as a candidate, [she's] sensitive to the fact that we’d be starting from the red with [me]".
As consolation, she offered to buy me coffee 🙄
- I reply, saying I suggested Calendly as an alternative to playing phone tag (which I'd also tried, to no avail), and that while I was frustrated, if we didn't move forward now, I would never consider an opportunity with AB again, and that it was absurd that a recruiter dropping the ball was grounds for rejection. I suggested that a recruiter missing an appointment and treating a candidate rudely was grounds for termination, and that I'd never been insulted so badly by a recruiter.
- A week goes by with no response, to which I send another email asking what the situation was and what I could've possibly done to be more accommodating in this circumstance other than cancel all other engagements and wait by my phone.
- She replies, saying the situation remains the same, but she's still up for coffee and to talk through what happened.
How and why I would invest any more time on this company is beyond me. You just let a failure of a recruiter get in the way of one of your favorite candidates and now you want me to spend more time getting coffee with you? I can't even.
