Job Hunting - just plain bizzare recruitment story.

[Toddzilla]

So while I was in the box, my company of 4 years went bankrupt and had to let go of most of the staff, myself included. As normal, I punched up my resume and made it available on some job websites and began my search. This usually results in a constant stream of calls and emails from staffing companies that do simple keyword searches which result in completey out-of-context results.

I was contacted by a representative from a staffing firm in California for a job in northern Virginia with Visa. This firm works with Visa in CA and this was the first time they were asked to fill a VA position. So I talked with the recruiter about the position and it was a decent fit - 6 month contract to hire Linux Engineer position at a very nice hourly rate. I agreed to pursue the opportunity and so the rep set up a phone interview with the hirinig manager and the tech lead.

All of this is pretty standard.

The phoner was scheduled for an hour but it only lasted 20 minutes. The tech lead was dealing with "an important issue" so he wasn't able to ask me any questions or respond to anything I said. He would occasionally take himself off of mute and say "okay" and go back to his issue. The hiring manager probably never used a computer in his life. He struggled to ask even the most basic technical questions (totally butchering the names of the popular Linux distros for example) and after every answer I gave there would be an akward 3-5 second silence and then he'd say "ok, good, good, good" and then ask the next question on his list. Finally I guess he had enough and said he had to go so the call was abruptly ended with no indication what the next step in the process was.

I called the recruiter and told her the story and she told me she's let me know if she heard anything back.

Next day she calls to tell me Visa is extending an offer and I got the job.

• No follow-up interview
• No face-to-face meeting
• No idea what the day-to-day job is like
• No meeting the people I'd be working with
• No trip to see the office
• No background check
• No checking references
• Nothing

WTF?

Alarms are going off in my head, red-flags everywhere. I tell the recruiter that I appreciate the offer but I need some concrete info about the job. Who will I be working with, what will I be doing, where is the fucking office?

The next day her boss sends me an email congratulating me on my job offer and he's informed Visa that I've accepted the offer and will start in 2 weeks.

Seriously WTF?

[Dutch]

Well? Get to work!

[Coffee Warlord]

...Okay then.

[DanGarion]

So congrats!...

Heh, weird.

[sovereignstar v2]

[digamma]

In my experience anything with a contract label gets a ton less scrutiny.

The acceptance thing is a little strange but that sounds like an over aggressive staffing firm, which I've also found to be par for the course. They're trying to get paid too.

You are right to make sure you have the details down of course.

[claphamsa]

keep looking... but get paid while you do it

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

keep looking... but get paid while you do it

+100...or whatever the hourly rate you're getting is

[bbor]

Welcome to Hollywood

[lungs]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

That exact picture popped into my head.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by lungs

That exact picture popped into my head.

You might be Pensky material.

[finketr]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

The phoner was scheduled for an hour but it only lasted 20 minutes. The tech lead was dealing with "an important issue" so he wasn't able to ask me any questions or respond to anything I said. He would occasionally take himself off of mute and say "okay" and go back to his issue. The hiring manager probably never used a computer in his life. He struggled to ask even the most basic technical questions (totally butchering the names of the popular Linux distros for example) and after every answer I gave there would be an akward 3-5 second silence and then he'd say "ok, good, good, good" and then ask the next question on his list. Finally I guess he had enough and said he had to go so the call was abruptly ended with no indication what the next step in the process was.

I called the recruiter and told her the story and she told me she's let me know if she heard anything back.

Next day she calls to tell me Visa is extending an offer and I got the job.

• No follow-up interview
• No face-to-face meeting
• No idea what the day-to-day job is like
• No meeting the people I'd be working with
• No trip to see the office
• No background check
• No checking references
• Nothing

WTF?

Alarms are going off in my head, red-flags everywhere. I tell the recruiter that I appreciate the offer but I need some concrete info about the job. Who will I be working with, what will I be doing, where is the fucking office?

The next day her boss sends me an email congratulating me on my job offer and he's informed Visa that I've accepted the offer and will start in 2 weeks.

Seriously WTF?

Well, that is exactly how my contract position went. I had a longer interview with the contracting company than the people who hired me. I had an interview that was for a unix/linux admin position. The interviewer mentioned cisco routers and i said that I had used them. Very short interview about cisco...

5 days later: YYYY wants to offer you a position in their WAN group working on routers...

me: WTH??? I need to go see the place where the job is, etc.. Never met anyone in the group, supervisor included until the day I started.


15+ years later (5 contract, almost 10 permanent), best move of my life.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Alarms are going off in my head, red-flags everywhere. I tell the recruiter that I appreciate the offer but I need some concrete info about the job. Who will I be working with, what will I be doing, where is the fucking office?

Its everywhere you want to be, naturally.

Seriously...sounds like they need to hit some sort of corporate target & have carte blanche to just hire people asap to make it happen. Sometimes you can make the best of those types of situations and learn a ton because usually they have lots of idiots running around trying to act important while the couple of smart people actually do things that are important.

[Desnudo]

Probably were about lose the budget or something. Sounds like a terrible boss if they can't focus or reschedule.

YouTube

[MacroGuru]

Give the run down on what panned out. I just saw the FB update and I am very curious.

[Toddzilla]

Part Two:

I told NetPolarity - the staffing firm - I have not accepted the job because of the big list of questions I still had. They asked what I wanted and I told them a face-to-face meeting with Visa, preferably at the office in which I'd be working. Later in the week I get an email from NP saying they've organized a meeting with the team for me on Friday.

I go out there on Friday and the office is surrounded by a big spikey fence and a guardhouse . I go up the guardhouse and tell them I'm there for a meeting and give them the name of the person I'm supposed to meet. Nope, that person is on vacation, won't be back for another week. I call NP back and get a second name. Nope, no one at Visa by that name. I call NP back and get a third name. Nope, that person doesn't work in this office. I then get a call from person #2 - NP had gotten his name wrong - and so I'm able to go in and see the place.

I liked it - nice office, data center is next door, place is kind of quiet for my taste - but the people were nice and the guys I'd be working with are good people. At the end I tell them I have to talk to NetPolarity and they will be in touch to update my status.

So I call NP back and tell them the meeting went well and since I'm being considered for jobs at other companies, I'll let them know what I decide in the next week. Well that wasn't good enough - NetPolarity needed to know NOW if I'm taking the job or not. Why? Well at the same time I got the email congratulating me on accepting the offer (a week ago now), they called Visa to tell them I'd accepted the offer. Visa then cancelled their other interviews, took the job listing down, and told all of the other candidated the job had been filled.

None of that was of my doing - I was crystal clear to everyone involved I was not acceped any position - but NetPolarity saw fit to let Visa keep on believing I'd taken the job. NP even offered me a $5/hour (or $10K/year) increase to the original rate. I thanked them for the rate increase and told them in no uncertain terms I wasn't going to make a decision until today (5/21).

Part Three:

I decided that I'd just take the job and if one of the other offers came in that I like better I'd leave Visa and take it. So I called NP this morning to accept the offer. Well, NetPolarity dropped my rate $5/hour - they claim the $5 increase they gave me last week was a "one-time thing" and was contingent on me making a decision now.

So fuck those assholes - I call them up just now and told them to go screw. Nothing abouth the way they have conducted themselves has been professional, or competent, or engendered any confidence in my part that they wont fuck everything up moving forward.

Oh well.

[INDalltheway]

Wow - that is an unbelievable series of events.

[MacroGuru]

Oh wow...

And if they screwed Visa this bad, chances are, Visa will probably be done with them as well.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Oh wow...

And if they screwed Visa this bad, chances are, Visa will probably be done with them as well.

Just looking at this objectively, I am sure that NP will make Todd out to be the bad guy here. I doubt they will take any heat on this at all and probably already have another candidate lined up.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Subby

Just looking at this objectively, I am sure that NP will make Todd out to be the bad guy here. I doubt they will take any heat on this at all and probably already have another candidate lined up.

Yeah, I agree with you there. But if they have had other headaches with NP, it may not bode well for them.

[Passacaglia]

I bet the employer is OMC.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Part Two:

I told NetPolarity - the staffing firm - I have not accepted the job because of the big list of questions I still had. They asked what I wanted and I told them a face-to-face meeting with Visa, preferably at the office in which I'd be working. Later in the week I get an email from NP saying they've organized a meeting with the team for me on Friday.

I go out there on Friday and the office is surrounded by a big spikey fence and a guardhouse . I go up the guardhouse and tell them I'm there for a meeting and give them the name of the person I'm supposed to meet. Nope, that person is on vacation, won't be back for another week. I call NP back and get a second name. Nope, no one at Visa by that name. I call NP back and get a third name. Nope, that person doesn't work in this office. I then get a call from person #2 - NP had gotten his name wrong - and so I'm able to go in and see the place.

I liked it - nice office, data center is next door, place is kind of quiet for my taste - but the people were nice and the guys I'd be working with are good people. At the end I tell them I have to talk to NetPolarity and they will be in touch to update my status.

So I call NP back and tell them the meeting went well and since I'm being considered for jobs at other companies, I'll let them know what I decide in the next week. Well that wasn't good enough - NetPolarity needed to know NOW if I'm taking the job or not. Why? Well at the same time I got the email congratulating me on accepting the offer (a week ago now), they called Visa to tell them I'd accepted the offer. Visa then cancelled their other interviews, took the job listing down, and told all of the other candidated the job had been filled.

None of that was of my doing - I was crystal clear to everyone involved I was not acceped any position - but NetPolarity saw fit to let Visa keep on believing I'd taken the job. NP even offered me a $5/hour (or $10K/year) increase to the original rate. I thanked them for the rate increase and told them in no uncertain terms I wasn't going to make a decision until today (5/21).

Part Three:

I decided that I'd just take the job and if one of the other offers came in that I like better I'd leave Visa and take it. So I called NP this morning to accept the offer. Well, NetPolarity dropped my rate $5/hour - they claim the $5 increase they gave me last week was a "one-time thing" and was contingent on me making a decision now.

So fuck those assholes - I call them up just now and told them to go screw. Nothing abouth the way they have conducted themselves has been professional, or competent, or engendered any confidence in my part that they wont fuck everything up moving forward.

Oh well.

now call the guy you met at Visa... and negotiate yourself

[bhlloy]

Yeah I would at least drop them a line to let them know how it went down, if for no other purpose than to screw with the recruitment firm who sounds like complete douches. And who knows, maybe something better comes from that.

[miked]

Right, I'm not sure why that isn't the way to go. Cut out the staffing firm, let the people at Visa know they were being played, and get yourself a good deal.

[Toddzilla]

I emailed the crew at VISA and copied [email protected] and let them know I was stiff very interested in the position but I wasn't dealing with the staffing jerkoffs.

[cartman]

I'm pretty sure that contractually that a company can't direct hire someone that a staffing firm brought to them.

[Butter]

Would think that Visa would probably have something in their contract with the staffing company preventing Visa from hiring him without staffing co's involvement or compensation, seeing as they were the ones that brought the 2 parties together.

Then again, they don't sound like they know what they're doing, so who knows.

Dammit, cartman.

[bhlloy]

Probably, even so I'd want my side of the story to be known and who knows what happens in the future. Think it's smart either way

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

I emailed the crew at VISA and copied [email protected] and let them know I was stiff very interested in the position but I wasn't dealing with the staffing jerkoffs.

So, how interested were you?

[Toddzilla]

boner-ifficly interested

[Toddzilla]

Got 2 calls today:

The first from the President of NetPolarity. He's aghast at what happened and wants to get my side of the story as well as to apologize. I sent him an email of my side of the story and told him that "I'm choosing continued unemployment over a position through NetPolarity." He wrote back and said he would do anything to make it right and make sure I'm happy. So we'll see.

The second was from Visa HR. They told me they were sorry about the way the process has been handled and that they want me to work there. So they'll do whatever they can with or without NetPolarity to get me in.

good news has been hard to come by, but today was good.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

good news has been hard to come by, but today was good.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

+!

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Word.

[SteveMax58]

Nice!

So basically it sounds like this whole debacle really has pissed off a few people that shouldnt be pissed off.

Sounds like HR must have brought up this situation with NP, which went straight to the top of NP, and they have them so by the balls that NP will "make it right" no matter what (including waiving their recruitment fee) because hey...its f'n Visa.

[DaddyTorgo]

Great to hear about what sounds like a positive outcome Todd!

[Coffee Warlord]

Hey Todd?

If you're going to work for Visa, would you tell those assholes to get me my god damn debit BIN ranges without me having to jump through a million stupid hoops?

[Glengoyne]

It's funny, with my experience hiring IT contractors over the years, I came to two conclusions while reading this thread. Then I reconsidered the second.

1) NP is pretty much like 90% of the other recruiting agencies I've dealt with.
2) Todd sounds like a drama queen, which would make me hesitant to pull the trigger on full time employment.

Then I went back and confirmed that he was a UNIX/Linux admin, and reconsidered that whole drama queen thing. Because as a rule the best of those guys are prickly bastards on their best days.

NOTE: while in management now, I was previously a UNIX admin turned DBA.

[Coffee Warlord]

...It's a drama queen move to want to see the place you may be working? And talk with people? And get miffed when the recruiter just accepts the job on your behalf without even asking?

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

It's funny, with my experience hiring IT contractors over the years, I came to two conclusions while reading this thread. Then I reconsidered the second.

1) NP is pretty much like 90% of the other recruiting agencies I've dealt with.
2) Todd sounds like a drama queen, which would make me hesitant to pull the trigger on full time employment.

Then I went back and confirmed that he was a UNIX/Linux admin, and reconsidered that whole drama queen thing. Because as a rule the best of those guys are prickly bastards on their best days.

NOTE: while in management now, I was previously a UNIX admin turned DBA.

Prickly bastard, indeed. We work hard for that whole BOFH thing.

In the interest of the truth, I'm sure I've dealt with as many if not more recruiting agencies than you, and this has been the lone solitary and only bad experience of the bunch. All of them have their quirks and way of doing business, but I've been privileged to work with many firms that have been consummate professionals and fantastic to work with, and I'd work with them again happily. NetPolarity stands out as being exceptionally bad, and the president of the company would back me up on that in this situation.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

...It's a drama queen move to want to see the place you may be working? And talk with people? And get miffed when the recruiter just accepts the job on your behalf without even asking?

hey hey...I was paying him a compliment. Best of them and prickly bastard and all.

And I was looking at it from an employer's stand point. Limited insight to all of the details and such. Generally when I've seen this kind of "drama" during the hiring process, it leads to drama in the work place. So yeah. But all over ruled, see the "reconsidered", when you factor in the UNIX admin thing.

[Coffee Warlord]

My bad, then. Read into that wrong.

[Toddzilla]

sure, take his side....

/deleting your password....

[Toddzilla]

Job Resolution? I talked to the president and founder of NetPolarity and he's pretty embarrassed by the way I was jerked around. He let me know that the two people I dealt with before are no longer with the company and he was going to supervise the new recruiter and account manager - both very long tenured at NP - and add $3/hr ($6,000/yr.) to make up for my problems. Now that I got the president watching my account closely, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting paid on time, getting my questions answered, and customer service will be quite good.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

sure, take his side....

/deleting your password....

/activating the trojan I installed years ago

[Blackadar]

Ok, somewhat of the same thing just happened to me.

I've been looking for another gig since my company and bosses are greedy jackals...and I'm being kind.

So I fired off a resume to a pretty well-known business software company that's related to my field. They're not Microsoft, but we're talking about 1,500 employees and a pretty big client base with a good product. They were very high on my target list.

I received an email asking me to have a brief phone screening. Yay! Not surprised since I pretty much matched their job description. Cool. So phone screening guy #1 was an internal corporate recruiter. He handed my information to internal guy #2 who conducted screening #2. Both went well, so I interviewed with guy #3 for Job #1. It went well and I thought that would move forward, but they didn't move forward with Job #1. So then guy #2 asked if I was interested in Job #2, which was really tailor made for me. So I said yes and he set up a brief phone interview with guy #4. That went well, so they set up yet another brief phone interview with guy #5. That went well.

So now I'm expecting to be flown to corporate for a face-to-face. Or at least a Skype interview. Then out of nowhere, they call me and made me an offer...for 35% more than I making now with far better benefits and prospects of actually moving up in the organization. Except now I've accepted an offer and met NO ONE from their organization face-to-face. Weird...but I start my new gig in a week and a half.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Ok, somewhat of the same thing just happened to me.

I've been looking for another gig since my company and bosses are greedy jackals...and I'm being kind.

So I fired off a resume to a pretty well-known business software company that's related to my field. They're not Microsoft, but we're talking about 1,500 employees and a pretty big client base with a good product. They were very high on my target list.

I received an email asking me to have a brief phone screening. Yay! Not surprised since I pretty much matched their job description. Cool. So phone screening guy #1 was an internal corporate recruiter. He handed my information to internal guy #2 who conducted screening #2. Both went well, so I interviewed with guy #3 for Job #1. It went well and I thought that would move forward, but they didn't move forward with Job #1. So then guy #2 asked if I was interested in Job #2, which was really tailor made for me. So I said yes and he set up a brief phone interview with guy #4. That went well, so they set up yet another brief phone interview with guy #5. That went well.

So now I'm expecting to be flown to corporate for a face-to-face. Or at least a Skype interview. Then out of nowhere, they call me and made me an offer...for 35% more than I making now with far better benefits and prospects of actually moving up in the organization. Except now I've accepted an offer and met NO ONE from their organization face-to-face. Weird...but I start my new gig in a week and a half.

awesome! where is the job?

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

awesome! where is the job?

The company is in NoVA, but I'll be traveling quite a bit and working from home if not traveling.

[Toddzilla]

Welcome to the neighborhood!

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

The company is in NoVA, but I'll be traveling quite a bit and working from home if not traveling.

welcome to the center of the world