Recruiting Worst Practices

I think it was an application for one of my first positions. The ad said (yes - this is many years before the internet was in everyone's reach) entry level person, preferably someone interested in accounting or going to school for an accounting degree, no experience necessary. The "Thank you but" note I received indicated I was not a fit because I had no accounting experience (although I was an evening student working towards my accounting degree).

Rejected once, not due to skills or qualifications, but due to personality fit!
Laughed about it later with the daughter of the Boss, who reckoned I was rejected because I actually had a personality!

Email read:- "we have found other cv's to be more accurate than your own."

When I questioned the sender; were they inferring that there were inaccuracies on my CV, they replied, well no, we just meant that other cv's more accurately matched the criteria requested by the potential employer.

Didn't read like that to me!!!

I received an e-mail from my contact at a contract/temp firm saying they had "decided not to represent me." The next day the office principal called and asked if I'd be interested in taking a contract with them.

First job out of grad school - received a letter saying "sorry - you didn't get the job" - then the next day, received an offer letter from the same company -- still makes me smile after all these years...

I received the typical H/R blowoff email two days after an all day, out of town interview saying they were still in the hiring process and would keep me updated. The next day that same H/R 'professional' posted on linkedin that they were looking for that position and would anyone let him know if they knew anyone. I never did receive a no thank you letter from him.

I was applying for a Director of Accounting position and made it through three interviews. The CEO called me and basically told me the job was mine, but that he wanted me to meet with the person I was replacing and her direct report for one last interview. A week later the CEO called me to stumble through what was an apology but they had to offer it to someone else. When I asked for some feedback as to anything I could do to improve my interview skills going forward he couldn't tell me what went wrong. Obviously a dislike on personality or something; the weird thing is we were laughing and joking during the interview; I left feeling like it went awesome.

Didn't get a formal rejection letter but endured a comical 4-way interview (myself and 3 interviewers). It was for an internal audit position. One interviewer spoke about her own experience, and how she had transitioned into audit from HR (which was quite curious to me). Then she went on to insist "but you've never worked in internal audit before, right?".

On my CV it was plainly displayed that I worked at Deloitte and in the internal audit function at a Fortune 500 company. I still wonder whether it was a psychological interview or if she never bothered to read my resume.

On a separate occasion, a guy stopped in the midst of our interview and took a 15 minute phone call.

I guess this falls under "fit".

That's happened to me a few times (phone calls). It says lot about the person interviewing and probably the company.

I have you all beat.

I received an offer letter from the CEO to start on 'x' date for a position in another town, knowing I would need to make living arrangements, drove the 250 miles, stayed in a motel overnight and reported to work on the appointed date. The CEO was out of town and had apparently not lined things up, because HR asked for the offer letter, had me do some paperwork but ultimately told me they could not process me to start work.

The ultimate outcome was that I went home and was never even reimbursed for my costs. The cause was incredibly fraught politics in the organization and I had no recourse for reasons I will not disclose because they have reached out for me to come work for them.

Here's a oldie but goodie:

Them: "Thanks for your interest in the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) position at Mile Hi Foods. We have reviewed your application. Unfortunately, you are not the right fit for the position at this time."

Me: "In what way was I "lacking"?"

Them: "We actually decided not to hire a CFO and will be focusing on a Controller instead. When I closed out the job, it sent reject letters."

Classy!

Just had a conversation with another CFO. Here's his latest story (you can't make this stuff up)...

"I [he] had an ongoing argument with a recruiter on this title, "CFO - Convenience Store Retailer and Fuel Distribution Company". The recruiter kept trying to convince me that the title implied that industry experience was required. I informed him that if I was a mind reader, I'd have the winning numbers to the $700m Powerball."

"I know that the job description does NOT make sense and I agree with you that the employer is wrong about certain things......but that is what they want and I have to follow what they want because they are the ones paying me!"