I applied for the Deputy Editor position at BizClik Media and was invited to interview about a week later. In the days leading up to the interview, I received emails saying my interviewer had been changed four times, which I found unusual.
On the day of the interview I joined the Google Meet link at the scheduled start time and waited for almost an hour, but nobody ever showed up. I immediately emailed both HR and the interviewer themselves to find out what was happening. I got an immediate out-of-office reply from the interviewer, so she wasn’t even at work that day, and HR took five hours to respond. They said that the interviewer had called in sick and that it hadn’t been picked up that she had an interview that day. I was told my interview would be rearranged.
While I completely understand that people get ill, I was disappointed that no one noticed and contacted me before or during the interview slot, and that I spent almost an hour waiting, followed by several more hours trying to establish what had happened.
Three days passed with no further contact until I chased again. A couple of hours later, I received a rejection email informing me that BizClik had decided to move forward with other candidates.
I invested significant time preparing for this role and never even had the opportunity to interview, through no fault of my own. I did not feel that my time and effort were respected, and I didn’t feel the situation was treated with the urgency or seriousness that standing up a candidate warrants.
I would encourage anyone considering applying to make their own judgement, but based on my experience I was left with serious concerns about the company’s communication, organisation, and respect for candidates’ time.