This morning, I had a job interview. This is good news.
The interview was scheduled for 9am. I left the house at 7:15, in plenty of time to get to my office, do some last minute reading up on the company, have a good luck orange juice, put on the suit-appropriate pumps I leave in my desk drawer, and make my way to the interview location.
And then the red line exploded. I waited 15 minutes for the red line to come, and when it did, there was absolutely NO ROOM. So I waited 5 minutes for another one. No room. Finally, determined to wedge myself on the next train no matter what, I squooshed onto an incredibly crowded train. It was now 7:45. It takes at least 20 minutes to get downtown. A little rushed, but still enough time for me to buy my good luck oj, swoop by the office to pick up my shoes and cram a little, and make my way over there.
My phone started ringing with an unknown number as I was climbing the stairs up from the train at 8:05.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hi, pseudo? This is hiring attorney from place you’re interviewing, I -”
and then the line went dead.
THANKS FOR NOTHING, AT&T.
A few seconds later, as I was in Walgreens for the all-important oj purchase, the phone rang again.
“Hi, pseudo? This is hiring attorney again.”
“Ah, this is a much better connection. Sorry about before, I was just coming up from the el.”
“Oh, good, so are you on your way here?”
“Well, no, I was thinking I’d swing by my office first and then head over there.”
*long, ominous pause*
“Did you not get the email?”
“I’m sorry?”
“We sent you an email yesterday saying the interview had been rescheduled to 8.”
“Oh! No! I did not get an email!”
“Well, please get here as soon as you can.”
So I SPRINTED to my office to get interview appropriate shoes, jumped in a taxi, ran into the building as I pulled on my suit jacket, and spent the next three hours of interviews trying to tamp down the residual adrenaline coursing through my veins and answer questions in a semi-coherent fashion. I’m not sure I succeeded.
On the way over, though? I checked my email- no message telling me we were rescheduled. I mentioned that to the hiring attorney and she sort of sighed and said “oh, yeah, we’ve had some trouble with our email.”
!!?!
Don’t you think that if you’d been having trouble with your email, and you were making a last-minute change that required someone to be at an interview an hour earlier than planned, you’d, I don’t know, PICK UP THE PHONE?
Needless to say, I ate cookies for lunch. I felt I’d earned them.
OMG STRESS!!!
Did you get the oj?
This whole scenario is the stuff my nightmares are made of. Is this what we’ve become – people too lazy to make an actual telephone call even when it’s something important??
I think I’d scream. Looking forward to hearing details this weekend.
YIKES! Yeah, you’d think that something important like that would warrant a phone call, especially when you didn’t email back to confirm the change.
Hope it went well!
OMG – that is my worst nightmare. Good luck in your job search!
Perfect storm. I love when people say: Didn’t you get my e-mail….because wouldn’t I have taken some action if I HAD gotten it? Can’t you assume that I didn’t??? People.
OMG, I was hand-writing reading this FOR YOU. I hope it all worked out and I’m sure you were as eloquent as always.
Was the cookie the size of a dinner plate? I hope that it all worked out!
Dude, you don’t want to work there anyway. That should have required a PHONE CALL!
I once went to an interview where the traffic made me so late. It was the worst interview ever because 20 minutes late and I was just so flustered and I think I said some really stupid things.
WHO DOES THAT? Who sends an email changing a JOB INTERVIEW TIME, gets no response, and doesn’t follow up with a phone call? Especially KNOWING they’ve been having email issues? This bodes poorly for them as a possible workplace for you.
Oh how frustrating!!! That kind of sounds like a place I might not want to work….I mean, if they don’t even think to CALL when they know they are having problems with their email and it is last minute??
Oh, that is not cool. Yet sadly, not all that surprising, based on some people I’ve worked with. Personally I’d ALWAYS call with a last-minute change like that. ALWAYS.
This made my feet sweat. I haaaaate feeling rushed and panicky, especially in a professional-type situation. And this was not your fault! Yet they make you feel like it was your fault! Unjust, I say.
(EMAIL. WTF?)
I think I might have thrown my phone. Seriously. I work in HR and can’t imagine leaving a last-minute, first thing in the morning change up to email I knew was sketchy. That you pulled it together is impressive.
Hmm. I am thinking that you are clearly a competent and accomplished professional. At this point in your career, you are probably interviewing companies/agencies as much as they are interviewing you.
As far as I am concerned, THEY failed their interview.
Good luck!
They definitely should have called to confirm you received the email.
I don’t know about you, but I get so nervous before interviews that having something like that to take my mind off of it makes me do better in the actual interview. Hope it all worked out!