The Most Frustrating Meeting I’ve Ever Endured
It was hard to keep my eyes from rolling
I am incredibly lucky to be able to work exclusively from home as a driver's education instructor. I can teach my lessons and foster relationships with my students all from Zoom, and I love it. I love that I am able to reach students all across my state rather than being limited to just kids in my county.
But it’s still a part-time job. I work about six hours per day Monday through Thursday and a few extra hours on Fridays.
I love my job and hope to continue working as a teacher for a long time, but a girl needs health insurance. So, I’ve been on the hunt for a full-time position that I can do mostly from home. I’ve been using Indeed and ZipRecruiter like the latest social media apps; I treat them like Tinder. I read the bios, I save jobs I think are interesting, and 1-click apply to the ones that sound promising. It’s led to a lot of nothing, but I have gotten a few phone and Zoom interviews.
My most recent interview, however, was a nightmare.
The interview was for an entry-level PR job at a marketing firm about an hour away from where I live. I had spoken briefly with the HR director on the phone about my availability and interest in the position when they invited me for the interview.
The phone screening went very well from the get-go. The woman I spoke to was engaged in our conversation, and interested in what I was looking for in a job and career. She complimented me on my past experience from my resume, despite only being 24 years old.
I got the impression that they hadn’t called a bunch of applicants, yet but the woman did tell me they had about ten other people they were interviewing throughout the week. She said her manager was “very impressed with me and wanted to bring me in as soon as possible.” She gave me their address and information about the best way to get there, and I said I was excited to meet the hiring director.
The day of, I put on my big-girl clothes and drove on the beltway to get to this big-girl job in the big-girl city. I walked in (wearing my best heels and a face mask that matched my blazer) and checked in at the front desk. I was greeted with smiles and told to sit and wait for the hiring manager to come out. I sat and texted my mom to tell her I had gotten to the office alright and was nervous.
As she texted back “good luck,” a man came out into the waiting area. He wore a suit and a mask and stood at the front desk, without saying anything. I looked up and the receptionist was gone.
Since it had been a few moments of weird tension, I stood up and smiled, saying “Hi! I’m here for an interview. Are you who I’m meeting with today?” He stared at me and said “I’m not sure,” to which I replied, “My name is Megan.” He chuckled and said “Oh! Then yes, right this way.”
He led me to his office and asked me to take a seat. I was pleased that everyone in the office appeared to be wearing masks and abiding by social distancing guidelines — several members of my family are immunocompromised and I don’t want to take any chances. I sat down in the chair and the man sat behind his desk.
Mind you, he had still not introduced himself to me. In fact, he did not introduce himself the entire time I was in his office.
The hiring manager monopolized the conversation. I think he might’ve asked me two questions, neither of which were about my prior experience or qualifications for the position. He explained to me what he was looking for, what their company did (sort of), and continued to ask me if I was understanding him properly.
He then asked for a copy of my resume, to which I replied “I’m sorry, your HR director told me not to bring a copy because of cross-contamination and assured me that you had one.” He looked irritated but changed the subject.
The interview took about thirty minutes, and I asked two questions. One, what are the day to day responsibilities of the position, and two, how many other clients did the firm have besides the two that he already mentioned. The day to day he sort of glossed over, saying that the hours were long and he needed someone dedicated who could handle working Monday through Saturday. Cool, thanks, didn’t really answer my question, though. In regards to what other clients they had, he skirted around his answer too.
He spoke very highly of their two newest clients and refused to tell me how many other clients they had. I didn’t ask who they were or how much they paid, I just wanted to get an idea of how big their operation was. If it was just two or three total clients, they clearly weren’t doing as hot as he implied. If they had dozens but only focused on these bigger two, that told me everything I needed to know about their morals.
Not only was the man not answering my questions directly, but he also didn’t ask me about myself at all. He was condescending and spoke to me as if I was a three-year-old.
He told me to hold all my questions to the end because he was a very busy man and wanted to get through everything he had to say first, and that he would “probably answer any of my questions if I just let him talk.” When he finally asked if I had any more questions, I said no — I wanted to get the hell out of there.
He said, “Great, we’ll be in touch. Let me walk you out.” I assumed that this meant he would walk me back out to the lobby and that would be that. But no, this man walked me halfway to my car. It was incredibly awkward and borderline creepy. When I got into my car I locked the doors instantly and called my fiance to tell him about everything I’d just experienced.
This guy just spent thirty minutes explaining nothing to me and then had the audacity to call me back in for a second interview. It became very clear that this guy didn’t give a flying fart what kind of person I was or what kind of qualifications I possessed. He just wanted me as a pawn in his scheme to sell whatever the hell they sell — because no, I still don’t know.
I spent the entire drive home fuming, yelling to myself, and into the phone. My knee-jerk thoughts were that maybe I had done something wrong. Maybe I didn’t give him a chance. Maybe I made an assumption about them too soon.
Thankfully, my lovely partner is a feminist and helped me see that what I had just endured was not an interview, it was a man who wanted to show off how impressive he is for a half-hour.
Obviously, I declined the second interview request. I missed their call and thankfully only had to leave a message in response. All I said was “I was under the impression that this was a writing and research marketing job, not sales.” Short and to the point.
Haven’t heard back from them since, but I did leave an informative but wordy review of their interview process and company on Glassdoor.
