Why Recruiters Suck

Question

This past week, I was supposed to do a second interview for a job I very much wanted. The call was scheduled nearly a week in advance and was to take place on a Friday at 2. At 1:28, I received an email from the hiring manager. She said they had already selected someone for the position; therefore, my interview was cancelled.

I have the utmost respect for this company and its mission. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have applied. Yet wasn’t their behavior deeply unprofessional? Even if it’s pervasive and commonplace, isn’t it just wrong?

Job applicants put an enormous amount of time and effort into a job search, and it’s frustrating and disappointing to be treated this way. Am I mistaken?

Answer
You are 100% right: Their behavior is despicable. Period. This is not complicated.

To be sure, they’re not obligated to keep the interview if they find the perfect fit earlier. But let’s be honest: It’s highly unlikely they made that decision 30 minutes beforehand.

The issue, then, is not their decision, but how they handled it. Put simply, there’s a right way and a wrong way to treat people. And on that front, they failed to demonstrate empathy, remorse, gratitude, or any of the other qualities you’d want in an employer, let alone a colleague or manager.

They could have called. They could have sent over a Starbucks card for the hassle. They could have written an email that was thoughtful. They could have kept the interview, because you never know. They failed at every turn.

One final note: It’s unclear whether the company is to blame, or the individual. I suspect it’s the latter; the person probably procrastinated, then panicked.

Ok, one more point: I’m a freelance ghostwriter, and I interviewed for a project on Friday with a Fortune 100 firm. The woman I spoke with said, during the call, that she was proceeding as if she’d hire me, and our next step was that her assistant would contact me that afternoon to schedule calls with the folks I’d need to her interview to write the case studies.

I followed-up on Monday, since the case studies needed to be done by Thursday and I was holding my schedule open. On Monday night, I received an email that said they had ended up hiring someone else.

But the woman also apologized for wasting my valuable time (her words), said it was a genuine pleasure to meet, and affirmatively stated that she hoped to hire me later this year. Even if that doesn’t happen, the email made my day. That’s how professionals treat each other.