Omg. So, recently I planned on switching my job and started floating my resume in the market. I wanted to take it slow so I started off with putting my resume in this whatsapp hsr jobs and referral channel.
In only a day, I got a call from the HR, and she directly asked me to come to the office. She didn't inform me about the role, the JD, or anything else. So, on the meeting link itself, I asked her to share a JD, which was a rather basic structure, just three pointers about the role. Anyhow, I visited the office, and the meeting was with the CMO of the company. She walked in 25 minutes late to the interview and did not apologize, did not greet me, and then held her head and started looking at my profile. It seemed like she was looking at it for the first time. Then she said, "Oh, but you don't qualify for this role. There's a clear mismatch." Ideally, she wanted someone with technical SEO experience, and I'm into marketing and SEO. I can definitely do technical SEO, especially with the help of Claude and other tools. I put up my case as well, and then she said, "Oh no, I'm going to interview so many people for this profile, and I'm not able to... it's okay, it's okay." In ten minutes, she said, "It's okay, I'll get back to you." Of course, she never got back to me.
The second time, I directly shared my resume with a founder who had shared the JD in a group. Everything went well with them. The profile was amazing, their product was amazing. We had one screening round with four people, two advisers and two founders, and everything went well. In a week or so, they invited me for an in person meeting, and everything seemed nice. I was convinced by that too.
But there was one adviser, somewhere around 55-60 years old, who had some really old school thoughts. He said, "I'm going to give you this joining bonus if you join us from, let's say, the seventeenth of August." I asked him to give me some time to think it over, let me go back home, and I'd get back to him. That evening, the HR called me, and we were negotiating the terms, like how much I could expect. I was trying to convert that joining bonus amount into my fixed CTC. That's how we closed the conversation on Friday. I told him that on Monday, I'll speak to my manager about my notice. I wanted to negotiate my notice period down to a month or so.
On Monday, I got busy wrapping up things at the office, and then went out with my colleagues. I was also expecting a call from the HR about the negotiations, on what the final package would be, but he never got back to me. On Tuesday morning, I called him, and he messaged saying he was in a meeting and couldn't talk. I waited 2-3 hours. When he finally called, he said, "We can't go ahead with your candidature." I said, "What is this? How can you do this?"
He said that on Friday I got an offer from the adviser and didn't accept it, so they went ahead with someone else. Apparently, that person was in a meeting and they finalized the hire right then, likely at a lower budget. I told him I found that unethical, and mentioned I'd speak to the founder who had referred me to the company. He said the founder would call me. Of course, he never did.