I explained to her that the job wasn't what I wanted, that it was my fault for not reading the job scope thoroughly before agreeing to the interview and initially she was a bit hesitant to cancel the interview because I think it wouldn't look good for her company, so she tried to get me to go for the interview anyway and ask me to ask the company if the position offers any design related responsibilities, she sounded really desperate and her reasons for asking me to attend the interview was honestly not convincing at all, if anything, her uncertainty makes me even less interested that I already was, so I told her I really didn't want to waste the company's time interviewing a candidate who was clearly not interested in the position and that cancelling would be the best way to go for everyone involved, to which she begrudgingly agreed.
After that was done, I felt instantly more relaxed, but then a few minutes later, I get a call from a number I didn't recognized and upon picking it up, the person started to introduce himself as the recruitment firm's team leader, turns out they really didn't want to cancel the interview at all, so he went on and on about how the company I was being interviewed at was a huge Japanese company, that it had all this amazing employee benefits and at the beginning I found it a little bit irritating because he wouldn't stop yapping, but then he goes...
"Actually the company is very excited to meet you because you are the only candidate they picked for the position, they even called us this morning to check if you were coming, they are really excited to see you."
... and being the gullible idiot that I am, I believed him and agreed to go for the interview, expecting for the company to entice me to join them seeing how I am the only candidate they had selected for the interview process.
3.30pm comes around and I set off for Downtown, I got my resume ready and reached the office at about 4.25pm, immediately got send into the meeting room and was soon joined the interviewer James, James shakes my hand and tells me that the boss will also be sitting in for the interview and about 10 seconds later, this older Japanese gentleman comes in and introduces himself to me, I literally couldn't catch what his name was because his accent was so strong, so I just smiled and nodded at him like I heard him and we all sat down.
James then ask me to introduce myself, which I did, I shared with them about my current job as an Interior Designer, my job scope and there really wasn't much to say because everything I am sharing is already written in my resume, plus a lot of the skill set that I currently have really doesn't apply to the job I was interviewing for, so as soon as I was done, the room was just filled with this awkward silence and James broke that silence by going...
"Based on your resume, it seems like you don't have the proper experience for his position. Maybe you can share with us why you decided to apply for this position?"
... and in my head, I just sort of went blank, this is literally what I tried to convey to the recruitment agency in the morning, that I was not right for the job, but they still insisted I go down for the interview anyway. I thought the company would have been aware of this but turns out they weren't, and I couldn't help but got a little annoyed at the whole situation after that because this has clearly gone in a direction that is clearly going to be a waste of everyone's time.
I came into the interview thinking the company was going to share the benefits their company could offer me as an employee, explain the job scope to me in person and then sell the position to me since according to the recruitment agency's team leader, I was the "only shortlisted candidate"
The company on the other hand came into this interview expecting me to share why they think I should be hired for the position and what I can offer the company, even asked me why I decided to apply for their company as if I had done thorough research on them and had personally send my resume in, so I was really confused because they should have been very aware that this was done through the recruitment agency.
That little smidgen of interest that I originally had for the position instantly went away the very moment James asked me the questions he ask me about my knowledge about the company and why I wanted to join their company, because I didn't want to, I was under the impression that I was there for them to convince me to join them, that they needed my current skill set for the position, I had clearly been bamboozled by the team leader from the recruitment agency.
At that point, I just didn't give a flying fuck anymore, I knew the company was not going to hire me, I had no way of trying to sell myself to James and the boss to hire me because I have zero interest in the job, so I told James that I was going to be extremely blunt and honest with him and his boss, and proceeded to tell them straight to their face that I didn't actually apply for the job, that it was done through the recruitment agency so I have never actually heard of their company before, I could barely even google any information about them and the boss just gave a dry laugh and agreed with me.
I then told them to excuse my bluntness once again and confessed that I wasn't actually interested in this position at all, that I had actually attempted to call the recruitment agency earlier this morning to cancel but they insisted I come anyways. I told them I wanted a position that had more of a designer responsibilities, not a sales position, that I didn't want to waste their time with the interview anymore because if they, for some reason, ended up hiring me, I might probably quite in a month or two due to the nature of the job not being the one I wanted.
At that point, I just didn't give a flying fuck anymore, I knew the company was not going to hire me, I had no way of trying to sell myself to James and the boss to hire me because I have zero interest in the job, so I told James that I was going to be extremely blunt and honest with him and his boss, and proceeded to tell them straight to their face that I didn't actually apply for the job, that it was done through the recruitment agency so I have never actually heard of their company before, I could barely even google any information about them and the boss just gave a dry laugh and agreed with me.
I then told them to excuse my bluntness once again and confessed that I wasn't actually interested in this position at all, that I had actually attempted to call the recruitment agency earlier this morning to cancel but they insisted I come anyways. I told them I wanted a position that had more of a designer responsibilities, not a sales position, that I didn't want to waste their time with the interview anymore because if they, for some reason, ended up hiring me, I might probably quite in a month or two due to the nature of the job not being the one I wanted.
James was a little surprise at how honest I was being and went...
"I was actually giving you the opportunity to try and sell yourself and convince us why we should give you the job, but from what you have shared with me, it seems like you are not the right candidate for the position."
.... and I agreed with him, he then tells me that he is very surprised at how honest I was, that he found my honesty refreshing to see in a candidate, but that my honesty also makes me not suitable for the sales position, and I agreed with him wholeheartedly.
I didn't want to work as a Sales Executive, and the position was as a Senior Sales Executive, I was clearly under qualified for the position, I have no fucking idea what the recruitment agency was thinking when they got me the interview and I have no fucking idea what the company was thinking for even agreeing to meet me for an interview, the whole thing was a bloody mess.
When I was getting ushered out, I could tell from James' body language when he pointed me the way out that he was probably also a little bit bumped out about the interview ending the way it did, he tried to start a bit of small talk as I was coming out of the meeting room and ask me if residential project was more difficult, so I wanted to share with him a little, but the moment I stepped out of the room and past him, barely even finishing my first sentence, he immediately points me to the door, clearly not interested to listen to me talk any longer and just waved goodbye at me.
After the interview, I called up the recruitment agency girl who arranged the interview for me and she was surprised at how quickly the interview ended, so I told her I was very honest with the company, that I was never interested in the position in the first place, that I had told her in the morning already that it wasn't a right fit for me and I think that was when she finally accepted that I really didn't want the job at all.
Sigh, it was such a huge waste of time everybody's time and I have the team leader of the recruitment agency to thank for making sure that everybody's time was wasted today.
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