I have made my fair share of faux pas in job interviews.
I’ve showed up late, come unprepared for their questions about how I would function on the job and asked questions that might’ve felt too personal to my interviewers. For some employers, these might seem like red flags — and I didn’t get any of those jobs.
But on my journey as a candidate, I’ve noticed some questionable behavior on the part of my prospective employers as well. And it made me wonder if they’d be good companies to work for.
Here are some of the red flags I’ve seen in job interviews and what career experts advise doing should these kinds of interactions happen to you.
One company cancelled an interview—and later ghosted me
One job interview process presented several eyebrow-raising moments.
I was scheduled to have a first interview with the employer at 9:30 in the morning. It was in-person at a coffee shop, so I had to reorganize my day to make sure I could be there. At 5:30 p.m. the day before the interview, they emailed to say we had to reschedule.
On the one hand, “stuff does happen,” says Stacie Haller, career advisor at Resume Builder, adding that, “I’ve been a hiring manager. I’ve hired 1000s of people in my career. And sometimes I have to cancel an interview.” It’s good to have grace for your interviewers.
Later in the interview process, however, after I’d met with three different employees at the company and done a writing test for them, they asked via email about the salary range I was looking for. After I responded, I never heard from them again.
There should always be a level of respect between a potential employer and candidate, says Amanda Augustine, career expert at TopResume, “respect for your time, respect for the effort that you probably put in preparing for that interview.” This company did not show me that respect.
Another company cut the role as we were interviewing
Another employer changed course during the interview process.
Somewhere along the way, the company I’d applied to let me know they’d cut the job they initially began interviewing me for and wanted to talk to me, instead, about another. We continued the process for that other role.
It’s entirely possible the role had changed or been modified as they were interviewing people, says Augustine. In my case, the duties of the two were pretty similar. But “if it’s radically different, or it’s a role that asks for a lot or makes a lot less money ... I just think that’s a poor practice,” she says.
I got the job and they ended up getting rid of the role I was doing just months after I was hired and offering me another one instead.
‘Always listen to your gut’
If throughout the process of getting interviewed, you feel like something is off, “go check it out with somebody afterwards” like a friend, colleague or someone else in your professional circle to see if it’s typical, says Haller.
The bottom line, though, is “always listen to your gut,” says Haller, adding that “if something feels wrong to you, it’s wrong. If something feels weird to you, it’s weird.”
Inevitably, how a prospective employer treats you during the interview process is indicative of how they’ll treat you as an official employee. Pay close attention and make sure you’re getting the level of respect and communication you deserve, because “it does not get better once you work there,” says Haller.
