Virendra's Blog

Just wished to share s few incidents while job-hunting in past.
I was approached by a recruitment agency around 6-7 weeks back. It was a job opportunity with an insurance biggie. Well, I was interested. They gave me the details (which they recite like a learned parrot) in less than 40 seconds. Imagine details spanning 10 printed lines – including those about the company and your job profile in that short a time.
Never mind if it means big bucks. They had bulk openings. Even better chances to get in. They were also willing to pay really high package.
Now the problem part starts. They wanted to schedule interview only on a weekday (more specifically only on a Thursday – don’t know what is so special about Thursday). And they clearly told – “you should join within a week”. Period. I refused the offer right then and there. I am not sure whether the company really meant it like that or was it the overzealous recruiter but he painted a really bad image of the company.
How will they feel if their employee start leaving at one week notice? Or how would they feel if their employees were appearing for interviews on weekdays by excusing a false day-off? Clearly they have some ethics missing somewhere.
By the way, this company is still advertising for “talent”, obviously meaning they’re not having much success inspite of the huge pay-packages and also meaning that their one week joining condition was a lie. They can “talent”-hunt for employees for 7 weeks, but once they actually hire someone they can’t wait more than one week? Joke.
Another incident more than an year old. There was this job ad in the newspaper from a MNC bank. I applied and a few days later one recruitement firm called me. They said I could forward my resume to them if I wanted a job. I told them I have sent it directly to HR. The recruiter LAUGHED and told me that unless it was forwarded by one of the recruitment agency no one would look into it. HR gets a portion of recruiting fees that the recruiter gets from company. Needless to say, I actually was not even called for interview having applied directly.

Then another time, one HR guy fixed my telephonic interview at 3PM “sharp”. I prepared and waited … 3PM, 3.30PM,4PM,4.30PM. No call. So much for sincerity and time management. What an intro to my prospective employer. I declined to give them an interview when the call eventually came at 5PM telling about an important meeting/sudden appointment of my interviewer. I wonder how would they would have reacted if I had asked to delay it by 2 hours because of an important meeting of mine.
We might be hosting many MNCs, but the approach is purely Indian (read sarkari).
I hope with time, we will have “professionalism” in companies as well.