Had the most unhinged recruiter experience today and I need to vent
I had a phone interview scheduled for 2pm today. 2:09 rolls around and no call so I reach out to her. She goes “I said I’d call as close to 2 as possible, my last call ran long and I’m still taking notes, I’ll call back.” Okay fine, things happen. But when she called back there was no apology, instead she doubled down and said she never said it would be exactly 2pm and she said it would be as close to 2pm as possible.
Ma’am. What does “as close to two as possible” even mean? 1:40? 2:30? 2:30 is technically close to 2. If she had just said “I’m so sorry my last meeting ran long” I would have been completely fine. Instead she made it seem like I was in the wrong for expecting a scheduled 2pm call to happen at 2pm. Okay.
It gets better.
Throughout the entire interview she stopped me FOUR TIMES to say “can you slow down? I need to type exactly what you’re saying.” She was manually transcribing the interview word for word. I was already speaking as naturally slow as I could but apparently that wasn’t slow enough for her typing speed and she kept saying I was talking too fast. Could she not take notes? A recording? AI tools? What do you mean you’re transcribing what I say word for word by hand.
Then she tells me the salary maxes out at $96K. The job posting (which I can still see on Ladders btw) says $85K-$108K. And then she said “no one we’re interviewing would get $96K anyway because that means you meet ALL the job requirements and no one meets all of them.” I went back and checked. I meet almost all of them. 🤧
Travel requirements were also nowhere in the job posting. This role is in Arlington. She casually dropped mid-interview that I’d need to travel to Baltimore and DC “sometimes.” I asked how much travel is “sometimes.” She said it can vary. I asked for clarification. She said she couldn’t say for sure. A commute to Arlington is very different from a commute to Baltimore so like that’s kind of important information???
Towards the end of the call, I asked what kind of candidate they’re looking for and she said they need someone who is “always available.” ALWAYS. AVAILABLE. For a salaried position. With an undisclosed amount of travel. And a salary lower than advertised. Sure.
Oh and her entire tone throughout was condescending. Like I was inconveniencing her by showing up to an interview SHE scheduled???
I withdrew my application. I may need a job but I don’t need it bad enough to deal with this level of disrespect every single day. Some red flags are worth listening to.
Anyone else dealt with recruiters like this? I’m genuinely baffled. I guess companies think they can just do whatever they want with the state of the job market.