The Complete Mishandling of My Job Interview
Why it’s critical to keep a close eye on every stage of an interview handoff.
My job search began with the simplest premise: I needed change.
I was working as a financial analyst at my first job out of college and it had been a good run. But I was tired of the company culture, which emanated greed and self-serving. I was looking for more growth.
And so I got back together with Indeed, Glassdoor, and CareerBuilder, applying for countless jobs, and signing myself up for endless spam email, despite opting out of everything and not giving my phone number to any external entities.
An employer, who we’ll call Avion, contacted me about an interview. They were a large online education platform provider — which serviced major universities offering online courses for the first time. Avion was a key vendor that hosted the videos and interactive coursework for students. It was a huge business and I was excited at the potential of entering this market.
They needed an analyst to come in and audit their processes, and ensure they were making enough money through their programs, which were becoming increasingly cumbersome and personnel intensive.
Interview day came in hot
On the day of my interview, I showed up fully glammed out in my fitted suit. I’d spent ample time in the mirror, neurotically checking for wrinkles, small dots on my white shirt, and checking my resumes for any minor imperfections. I felt like 007 that day. Everything was perfect.
As I walked through the gravel parking lot, I saw clusters of mostly-young employees coming and going from the tall obsidian office building. Lunch hour was upon us, and the atmosphere was full of lively energy. I loved it.
A giant steel framed door opened automatically as I climbed its adjoining steps, revealing a nice, but very corporate office behind it, with high ceilings, grey carpets, and paintings on the walls. A giant white banner flew above the secretary’s desk, reading, “The Avion Advantage”.
I approached and said, “Hi, I’m here for my scheduled interview at 12:15. I’m Sean Kernan.”
The young blonde woman looked up at me and said, “Do you have your application?”
I was a bit confused, and said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware I needed to fill one out, as I filled one out online?”
You should have seen her face twist in agitation with me. It was a total record scratch moment that killed the entire good vibe. She printed out the application under her desk and handed me one, giving off plenty of attitude with her body language. I sat down and began filling out the same mundane information I’d already sent them online. It was such a glaring redundancy in the interview process and didn’t signal well for their culture, or the efficiency of their systems. It was the first time I’d filled out a paper application in years.
After I finished it and handed it back to her, I sat down in the guest chairs and thought, “OK, Sean. Let’s just reset. I’m here to be open minded to explore this opportunity.”
A few minutes later, another woman came out. She was slightly older and carrying a clipboard. She walked over and sat directly across from me without introducing herself.
“I noticed you didn’t fill out your salary information. How much do you make per annum at your current job?” She said, assertively.
I explained to her that I’d be happy to discuss that in the event of a job offer. I’d left the section blank intentionally. In business school, I’d learned to hold off on sharing salary information as much as possible.
She doubles down and presses me again for my salary — in full earshot of two other people sitting in the waiting room. And it made me squirm in my seat. I politely iterated, “I’d be happy to discuss my salary at the appropriate time and if there is a potential job offer.”
“But why not just list it here now so that we don’t have to later?” She said, leaving me quite, quite surprised that she wasn’t taking the hint. I repeated what I said prior, but did so with a huge smile that clearly said, “I’m not sharing this information with you.”
She got up and left and I still didn’t know her name. At that point, I knew that if the hiring manager and her had a conversation about me — it wouldn’t convey me in a positive light. But so be it.
I’d been on many interviews at this point in my life, but none quite like this. First impressions were a foreign concept at this office.
“Sean?” The secretary called out.
I looked up, and she waved me over and began walking me to my interview room. She sat me down in a 10 foot by 10 foot room with a table in the middle and chairs on opposing sides. I waited for a full 20 minutes before my interviewer showed up.
A brown-haired, 40-ish year old man in business casual walked in and said, “Sorry about the delay. I was waiting for you in another room. I think we had a miscommunication internally on where we’d be talking.”
I stood up and shook his hand, “No problem at all! Glad we could finally meet.”
The first 10 minutes of the interview were fairly vanilla and easy. I went through my qualifications, why I was looking for a job, and your typical line of questioning, including “What’s your greatest weakness?”
Then, he asked what would seem like a routine question, “What would you do if you had a problem you couldn’t solve on your own?”
And I gave a straightforward answer about troubleshooting, and then finding the appropriate subject matter expert. Then, he asked the exact same question using different wording, and would circle back to this same question several times before the end of the interview. It was alarming and I was running out of creative ways to answer the same question differently.
Above all — it was painfully obvious that whoever held this position prior to me had been high maintenance. The man in front of me was clearly conveying some annoyance with that person still. It didn’t give me a good vibe in any way of him as my prospective boss.
Incredibly, I was given a job offer after this interview — but politely declined and refrained from giving details on why, because it would have required an essay and I didn’t have the time.
The signs of dysfunction were everywhere. Their Glassdoor employee reviews were awful and still are to this day, which makes one wonder how organizations like this retain people and stay afloat.
I would remind people that a job interview is not just a moment for you to audition for a job. It is a mutual exchange of information, to see if you both align with each other. If your host mishandles the basic logistics during this process — as they did with my duplicate application, with the attitude copped by the secretary, the inappropriate pressure for my salary in a public setting, the wrong interview room, and with the odd line of questioning — something is generally wrong. It often reflects organizational issues, be they financial, cultural, ethical, or beyond. Things snowball quickly when a company has problems.
Pay as close attention to your prospective employer during this process as they pay to you. Small details matter for them too. If they are doing something annoying during this process already, there’s a good chance you’ll be drinking from it in buckets as a full-time employee. No paycheck is worth a toxic work environment.
As it turns out, I wasn’t quite ready for “The Avion Advantage”.
I'm a former financial analyst turned writer out of Tampa, Florida. I write story-driven content to help us live better and maximize our potential.