Please tell me your opinion on how I handled this, because I feel like shit and need to come to terms. Was I justified or was I an asshole?
I had a phone interview today, a pre screening with a human resources recruiter. I applied for this position a month ago, and by now I've already accepted a job offer at another company.
But, I figured I'd ask some questions about the position, just in case it was an even better fit/offer.
The HR Lady (henceforth known as HRL) had written me two weeks prior to this for clarification on my application, asking "Do you have experience in _____? If so, please update your resume to reflect this." I already had the skill clearly outlined in my resume. Twice. So there was nothing for me to update. I even double checked my application just to be sure. All I could say in my response was explain that yes, I have experience in that skill, and to point out and copy and paste the exact quotes about it on my resume. "Please let me know if you have further questions." No response.
Okay.
So today she contacted me for a phone interview, having arranged the time with me yesterday. Normally this starts with briefly going over my experience and asking questions about specific skills they're looking for. That's normal and understandable. But HRL asked me to parrot to her every line of the "work experience" portion of my resume, including dates. This has never happened to me before and I thought it was both strange and a huge waste of time, so I asked why I needed to do this when she already had my resume. "It's just how we do things." Okay then.
(con't)
(Cont)
I tried to ask how much the position paid and if she could describe the day to day duties in more detail, but she would only tell me "the manager can go over that with you." I do not want to waste the manager's time if the job duties and pay arent what I'm looking for, so why can't I know now? "Erm, you really don't know? You can't look it up for me?" "It is the company's policy not to reveal that information at this stage." What. The. Fuck. The last two phone interviews I've had with two other companies revealed that information at this stage without me having to ask it. Isn't it common sense that people need to know this, and it's better that they know early to avoid wasting anyone's time?
Finally, after wasting 30 minutes parroting every line of the resume that she already had, HRL got to the "behavioral questions". The very first question was "name a time that you witnessed something unethical at work. How did you handle it?"
Guys, I truly have never "witnessed something unethical". Not even when I worked in retail, never saw a fellow employee steal or anything of the sort. Isn't this what managers and leadership teams deal with, not entry level grunts like what I was applying for? I have never been asked this in an interview. I have been asked to explain what ethics means to me, which in my opinion is a far more appropriate question for someone who's not applying to be in a leadership position.
Anyway, I explained to HRL that I truly haven't witnessed it, and tried to explain how I handled othe6 ways that people at work brought the team down (negative attitude) and how I helped turn it around. This answer wasn't good enough for her and she demanded I talk about observing an unethical situation. Which I already explained has never happened to me. In retrospect I should have made something up, but at this point I really didn't care.
(Cont)
I pointed out that this was a question that was more appropriate for managers as they handle those situations, and asked if other entry level candidates really had examples of this. She said yes, they did. She, ah, hung up on me shortly after.
So: was I an ass or was my questioning of the whole process justified?
She sounds pretty shitty, don't worry about it if you have another job lined up anyway though.
>>17280569
This was for a very large, very successful company. How is it possible for the hiring process to be this retarded. Or maybe it was just her? or maybe it was me and I'm an asshole?
>>17280581
Welcome to the bureaucratic bullshit that is large companies' HR department. The only way to get in is to allow them to fill out every little box on their stupid evaluation.
You aren't in the wrong for being frustrated, but next time exaggerate yourself and make stuff up when you're in one of these situations.
>>17281660
This. Especially at large companies, the hiring process is very mechanical. They have a certain type of person in mind. Next time you get an ethics question just lie (kek, the irony), say you witnessed a co-worker stealing or something. You need to be able to answer everything.
>>17281660
>>17281690
These guys are correct. You have an HR grunt who runs down specific questions. no deviation, so she or a manager can compare answers with other candidates.
As for asking about dates and responsibilities, they (we) do that in case you make shit up. Let's say you put on your resume that you worked for a company from June 2012 - September 2015 when you actually only worked there from June - September 2015. Chances are that you may not remember what you put as a start date if you made it up.
The last job I applied to I filled out start and end dates on three different forms and when I met the president of the company he had all three forms and compared each date.
