Man walks out after waiting nearly 2 hours for job interview: 'We are jobseekers, not beggars'
He had enough.
A jobseeker walked out after waiting nearly two hours for a job interview and then was told to come back later.
Stomper Simon felt that no respect was shown to him as an interviewee.
He had been contacted about the position of purchaser by Daewoo-Yongnam Joint Venture (DYJV), the company contracted by the Land Transport Authority to build the Jurong Region Line.
The interview was scheduled to be on Feb 21 at 10:30am at the company's site office in Teban Gardens.
"I arrived at the site office at 10.05am as is my habit and also as a form of respect for the interviewer's time by not being late," recounted the Stomper.
"However, upon arrival, when I called the phone number indicated in the HR personnel's email, there was no answer.
"After calling a few times, I spotted an office staffer and approached her to ask her where I can find the HR personnel named Arnel or the interviewer named Mr Han.
"The staffer told me that she will help me to contact them and took me to a waiting area. I sat and waited till about 10.25am and the same lady came to me again and told me she has been trying to contact both of them but to no avail and asked me to wait a little longer.
"When she left, I tried calling the number again a few times. Finally, someone picked up but it was not Arnel. When I asked for him, the staff on the phone said the number was a main line not a direct one and that she did not know who Arnel was. I had no choice but to continue waiting."
At 10.40pm, the elusive Arnel finally appeared.
"Arnel showed up and brought me to a meeting room where the interview was supposed to be conducted," said the Stomper.
"I sat and waited till 10.55am and the interviewer showed up. After the initial greetings, I handed him the employment form that I was asked to fill out when the appointment was set. Even before he could look through it, he received a call on his mobile and excused himself. He was in the meeting room for less than two minutes."
The Stomper was left alone in the room.
"At 10.58am, I received a WhatsApp message from Arnel, informing me that Mr Han was in the PD room and for me to wait," said the Stomper.
"At 11:30am, another text was sent with the same information. At this point, I had started to have doubts about the whole situation."
But the Stomper waited and waited.
He said: "All in all, I had been at the site office for almost two hours, with less than two minutes of that time spent interacting with the interviewer."
Then came the last straw.
"At 11.47am, another message from Arnel, letting me know that I should go for lunch and come back again at 1pm," said the Stomper.
"As I was typing out a reply, Arnel came into the meeting room to deliver the same message on WhatsApp. I told him point blank that this was not the way they should do things and that even though I was there for an interview, it didn't mean they could disrespect me and waste my time in this manner, and I left."
The Stomper walked out.
He said: "Clearly, the interviewer and the HR personnel do not respect the interviewee's time as the timing for the appointment was stated as one of the options by them, agreed by them. Even though HR had my number, no attempt was made to contact me before the interview started.
"Even after putting me inside the meeting room, communication was done via WhatsApp instead of coming in to update me.
"As someone who had interviewed candidates in previous roles, I understand that if there are scheduled interviews, we take it upon ourselves to ensure that we set aside the agreed upon time slots. It is common decency when people make the effort to turn up physically.
"Yet, they lacked even that or the professionalism of communicating to the candidate directly."
The Stomper added: "What's worse is this company is contracted to do government construction projects. If their conduct is a reflection of their construction, I shudder to step into the buildings handled by them.
"I would like to share with readers so that they can avoid companies such as this that show how little they respect their interview candidates. We are jobseekers, not beggars. Companies pay us, but we put in our effort, time and skills for the company to profit.
"Respect should be a two-way street. Jobseekers out there should know your worth and respect yourselves and stay away from such companies."
In response to a Stomp query, Arnel said: "I sincerely apologise for the abrupt termination of Simon's interview process for purchaser position in our company DYJV.
"We understand this was handled poorly and caused him to feel disrespected, and for that, we are truly sorry.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances within our organisation, we were unfortunately forced to halt the interview process at the last minute. While we understand this explanation does not fully mitigate the negative experience, we wanted to provide transparency regarding the situation.
"We deeply regret the inconvenience and disappointment this has caused Simon.
"We value talented candidates like Simon, and we hope this incident does not negatively impact his perception of DYJV. We appreciate his time and interest in our company."
