Man Was Recruited For A Job He Was Already Rejected From Twice, So He Booked An Interview Anyway To See What Would Happen
We all know the job search process is broken, but who knew it was THIS broken?
laflor / Getty Images Signature / Canva Pro We all know the job search process is broken. You send out your resume, and half the time, you get a rejection letter so fast it makes it clear no one even glanced at it in the first place. And that's just for starters.
One man on Reddit had a job-hunting experience that was so absurd that it ended up not only in a redundant interview but also in an apology.
He was recruited for a job he had already been rejected for — twice.
Now, if that doesn't just say it all, what does? It's common for job-seekers to feel like they must be the problem. Their qualifications just aren't good enough or their resume isn't up to snuff. But even experts say it's not you, it's them.
The job market is truly a mess and getting worse.
Chief among the reasons is that many recruiters and HR staff have been reduced to skeleton crews that simply can't keep up with the volume of work. Perhaps that's what produced the absurd situation this Redditor found himself in.
"You can't make this [expletive] up," he wrote in his post, pretty much summing up the entire job search experience. "I got rejected by a defense contractor for a DevOps role on Friday," he went on to say. "Then Tuesday, a recruiter reached out to me... and the job description looked VERY familiar."
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After doing more research in his emails, he realized he'd actually applied and phone interviewed for the job another time before that initial rejection, too. For obvious reasons, he was pretty astonished at the incompetence of this huge company — a government contractor, no less! So, he "concocted a plan."
He booked a third interview exactly one week after his second, with the exact same people — just to see what would happen.
"I called this recruiter, and I asked her —by any chance, is your client <insert company name>?" Sure enough, it was, and she was shocked he'd figured it out.
After explaining the situation and sharing a laugh with the recruiter, he told her he'd like to reword his resume, submit it again, and see if he could get an interview.
"I told her to share my full name, same email, same phone number, same EVERYTHING." Do you think they noticed? Reader, they did not — even though it was the exact same people leading the interview!
"Same lead developer and same manager who interviewed me according to the appointment details," he wrote. "Tomorrow is going to be a VERY interesting day."
It took a long time for them to realize their mistake, and in the end a more senior officer decided he was a great fit after all.
It took several minutes of interviewing for the people at the company to even realize they recognized the guy. Once they did, though, "their faces were absolutely priceless," he wrote.
This time, the VP of Technology was on the call. "I don’t think his team had the [courage] to admit to this massive oversight." And in perhaps the most ludicrous twist of all, that VP was also keenly interested in him for the job.
"[He] asked me a ton of more in-depth technical questions and then said that he will circle back to me in about a week because he thought I’d be a great fit for his team," he wrote. And then came an opportunity to call out how silly this all was.
"Before we concluded, he asked me, 'Do you have any questions for me or my team?' And I couldn’t help it," he wrote. "I asked him, 'Did you know this is my third time interviewing with this company, and your team rejected me last week and the week prior to that?'"
The VP was "not happy," and the man had to admit he had reservations about accepting a job given the "obvious disorganization." Who can blame him?
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The moral of the story is that this whole scheme of laying off all but a skeleton crew and simply replacing them with recruiting software and AI tools isn't working. It's dehumanizing and demoralizing for workers and recruiters alike, wastes tons of time, and, as expensive as the hiring process is, lots of money, too.
Turns out, a business model of firing everyone but a handful of astonishingly overworked people doesn't turn out so well. Who could have seen this coming besides literally everybody?
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.