We are deeply honored to have received your application (which we did not bother to read).
We’re sorry we didn’t hire you, but also never contact us again.
Signed,
Someone in HR who has nothing to do with this process.
Oh, and also, all the information in your CV that you also painstakingly rewrote into our forms, is going to be spread around to other companies who will use it to send you spam and phishing messages.
Good luck with your future endeavours of staying sane with others trying to get money out of you, that you don’t have.
I took an interview like this before. I checked the vast majority of the boxes of technologies used, and experience in a specific type of processing models prior to deployment. Thought it was bagged and tagged mine. 4 rounds of interviews, two technical rounds and a system design.
Asked me some hyper-specific question about X and wanted a hyper-specific implementation of Z technology to solve the problem. The way I solved it would have worked, but it wasn’t the X they were looking for.
Turns out the guy interviewing me at the second tech interview round was the manager of the guy he wanted in the role—and the guy working for him already was the founder of the startup that commercialized X, and they just needed to check a box for corporate saying they’d done their diligence looking for a relevant senior engineer.
That fucking company put me through the wringer for that bullshit. 4 rounds of interviews.
Never again.
… come to think of it now, I would have played ball with them if they’d just been transparent about the situation upfront. It was good interview practice and in retrospect prepared me well for the interviews at my current role. And I’m way happier with this company than I would’ve been there.
The Universe does funny things.
I worked at a job for a long time as a contractor. I was originally hired as a temporary filler, but they liked me so well that they kept me on, and let other lower-performing contractors go instead, despite me being the newest. Eventually due to economic downturns they released all their contractors, including me.
A few years later as the economy recovered, they brought me back as a contractor again, with the intention of hiring me once a position became available. Months later, one did open up and they specifically told me to apply for that position as an internal hire - but they would have to open it up for external applicants too.
I was a tad annoyed that some external applicant could in theory swoop in and take my “promised” position away from me, even though I’d been doing the job for years and was clearly the favored candidate.
I felt bad for the external applicants who probably never really had a chance, but at the same time I felt I’d earned that job.
I did get hired, of course, and I am still at the company to this day - fifteen years later. And I’m up for another promotion at the end of this fiscal quarter.
I’m fine with internal preselected individuals getting positions and promotions. What is universally disliked is us also getting interviews only to find out later they were a waste of time for this exact reason.
Exactly. I’m just saying it’s not fair to the external applicants whose time is wasted- like you said; but it’s also unfair to the internal preselected people who have to “compete” for a job that should already be theirs.
It all seems it’s just done to satisfy some bureaucratic quota nonsense.
How does the old saying go?
Ah, yes: “This is funny because it is true”
Having been on the other end of this where they picked an applicant from outside so they could pay them less, despite more than one person being more qualified and already working for the company, I’m not sure who’s side to be on here. On the one hand, if you’ve already got someone lined up for the job, this is disingenuous. On the other hand, if someone already working for you can do the job but you don’t want to pay them what they’re worth, that’s just messed up on several levels.
Companies do 2 things:
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lie to you
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underpay you
If you are going to play the game of working in a corporation, the best time to apply to new jobs is the moment you get one. Loyalty died a long time ago, so don’t pretend your manager is on your side.
Or also go freelance and never let 1 person control your income. In capitalism, money is freedom. If someone controls your money, they control your freedom.
Your manager might be on your side, but most impactful decisions come from one or more levels above your manager, and they’re just as powerless as you to change corporate decisions.
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Where science?
Academia counts as the realities of working in a lab. This is a big thing in academia.
Nothing lab-specific about this though, it’s the case for every industry!
It’s a real bummer interviewing these external applicants that you know won’t get the job. Like I wish I could just let them know, but we’re required to go through the entire interview process.
As someone in the inside, what’s the rationale behind having to publicly post jobs like this? Why can’t you just offer the job to the person you want to give it to?
It’s because of anti-discrimination laws. In some US states it can be illegal to hire someone for a position without posting it publicly. The concern is that if you’re not posting the job publicly, it can be because you want to prevent certain people from applying.
When you do post it publicly, the company can demonstrate that they allowed anyone to apply, show records that they considered multiple people for the job, and then decided on the internal candidate as the best fit. No room for a discrimination lawsuit.
Source: I’m a hiring manager at a multi-billion dollar company and have actually learned a thing or two from annual compliance training over the years.
In other words - like 99% of the laws: good
publicityintentions meets reality.
In academia (my line of work) they’re required to have positions posted and open for a certain amount of time, interview a certain number of applicants, etc.
In theory, it’s for equal opportunity and finding the best person for the job.
In practice, it’s a waste of time, money, and hope.
Likely corporate and/or legal politics. I would imagine things not unlike EEOP loopholing would play a big role in it. (Yes, gov’ment we are offering this opening to “anyone”. So, send that funding check right over)
This is very polite and surprisingly honest for him to say.
