red flags to look for in a job interview process

Sounds like you think that they owe you a job. They have the job, you want a job, they hold all the cards. They may have had 200 applicants.

xxxray wrote: ↑ Sounds like you think that they owe you a job. They have the job, you want a job, they hold all the cards. They may have had 200 applicants.

Sounds like you don't care whether you are a fit in a job and don't care if your next workplace is toxic. you don't want to join a company only to find out your boss yells and swears at you.

an interview is as much about you interviewing them as they interviewing you to determine fit. Sounds like you are not mature enough.

How are 1 and 3 things you can look for during an interview? If you're being cut off or you're not being sold on the job they probably don't want you.

mypepsi wrote: ↑ what are some red flags that you look for when interviewing with a company?

here are mine

1. they don't call or write you back telling you that you were unsuccessful
2. they tell you to have an interview at a specific time/date and don't ask you if that's a good time for you
3. you write them a thank you note for the interview but never hear back from them
4. you only had 5 mins to ask them questions and they cut you off to end of the interview
6. the interviewer doesn't try to sell you on the job and you do all the selling


what are your red flags?

1. Ok...maybe
2. Not really...you want the job, then you schedule you day around their schedule. If it doesn't work out for you, contact the HR person back and work something out with them politely. They don't usually just interview one person so interviews are done over a span of weeks.
3. What?! I wrote three thankyou emails to three different organizations and I never heard back from the manager, until the day I got the offer. They were all top notch companies/organizations ( one of them is one of Canada's largest real estate companies, one is a municipality that I am currently working for, and one is a quasi-government organization). I had two more offers that I turned down that I never wrote a thank you email for (Loblaws and Ikea...no these weren't for their basic minimum wage CS positions)
4. Then that means they just didn't like you and wanted to stop wasting your time and theirs. Get the hint.
5. You missed #5
6. Are you kidding me? You know how many applicants are out there dying for a decent job? Just to give you an example, our last round of hiring had well over 1000 applications for 5 spots. Decent jobs sell themselves, they don't need to be sold.

OP is asking people to post their red flags not attack him or debate on how stupid her are. I am thinking s/he is just asking people for their deal breakers if you aren't disparate.

FOPI: In Canada, most firm don't tell you that you are unsuccessful. I got one job in which I wasn't allow to ask questions. Fact of Life, sometimes the panel have other duties/ interviews/lunch/ going home to do and don't want the interview last over 3 hours.

One doesn't need to look for red flags, you spot them. Red flags may not be bad just you aren't getting the job/ you don't want to work here.

What I have seen:

They are whining or bad mouthing candidates.
They are actively dodging your questions.
They don't respect you nor your time.
They admit they have internal candidates (over 90% of the time they are going to be hired not you, ime).
They saying or implying racism, sexism or ablism, forward or reversed.
Bait and switch.

Funny ones:
They can't say what is good about working at the firm nor give a reason on why I should be working there.
Hiring manager doesn't know what job I will be doing or why the job exist.
One manager asking me why am I here.
Firm/ team that really don't have their act together.

Often times, letting people know they were unsuccessful is delegated to HR. In my experience, face to face interviews typically received notice, but if you haven't heard back, there's nothing wrong with following up a week or so later.

Agreed on the selling job part. When you are looking for experienced hires, you can't just assume that they will come in, love everything, and stick around. It doesn't do anyone favours if the new hire is miserable and looks to leave within months. At the same time, I realize that job candidates will mostly say whatever they think you want to hear in order to get the offer first.

Hiring people and being polite is definitely not a mantra in HR departments.

I think it's just rude to treat people that have gone through so much effort to apply and show up on time and don't hear back. I heard back from TD Insurance, Red Cross and a local paper. The others... nothing. No wonder companies in this area complaint that they can't find the right candidates, people just don't seem to care anymore. I know for myself that I am tired of yet another rejection (i.e. not hearing back) and don't always apply in the first place.

I would say it evolves as you progress in you career. What you stated seems typical for entry-level jobs. By the time you have some experience and a niche skill set, companies/clients will try to poach you all the time. Whether through LinkedIn, a "random" recruiter, inviting you for dinner/sporting events etc...

Either way, personally, when I started I did not get hung up on the red flags you stated.

Making you code on the whiteboard
Asking you to remember algorithms which no one has used since CS first year

Ken_vs_Ryu wrote: ↑ Making you code on the whiteboard
Asking you to remember algorithms which no one has used since CS first year

I somewhat disagree with the first point here, maybe writing "literally" code on a whiteboard is a red flag. But usually the point of the whiteboard is for the programming lead to interview and assess your thought process, skill-set, and competencies related to the position. They need to understand how you go about and solve a problem, and seeing you work it out and brainstorm infront of them (as if you were in the position) is a real step up to securing a job.

mypepsi wrote: ↑ what are some red flags that you look for when interviewing with a company?

here are mine

1. they don't call or write you back telling you that you were unsuccessful
2. they tell you to have an interview at a specific time/date and don't ask you if that's a good time for you
3. you write them a thank you note for the interview but never hear back from them
4. you only had 5 mins to ask them questions and they cut you off to end of the interview
6. the interviewer doesn't try to sell you on the job and you do all the selling


what are your red flags?

only in Ontario I found

mypepsi wrote: ↑ what are some red flags that you look for when interviewing with a company?

here are mine

1. they don't call or write you back telling you that you were unsuccessful
2. they tell you to have an interview at a specific time/date and don't ask you if that's a good time for you
3. you write them a thank you note for the interview but never hear back from them
4. you only had 5 mins to ask them questions and they cut you off to end of the interview
6. the interviewer doesn't try to sell you on the job and you do all the selling


what are your red flags?

Don't take it too personally, having interviewed hundreds of candidates, sometimes the hiring staff have a very succinct idea of what they are looking for and you may not fit those criteria at all. In your case, its obvious they don't like you, so why are you so desperate for some sort of validation from them? I do this on dates all the time lol.

tl;dr - if they want you, they will treat you with more respect.

Well, an agency just told me the time of an interview with a corp for a very very short temp positon, without asking me if that works for me.

it's a big crown corp, so is that a red flag?

1000islands wrote: ↑Well, an agency just told me the time of an interview with a corp for a very very short temp positon, without asking me if that works for me.

it's a big crown corp, so is that a red flag?

It's an agency, they take a cut if they get you into a potential employer. Your getting a opportunity, so if you can't work around it, many other will gladly step up. The agency will just cycle through its applicants.

mypepsi wrote: ↑ what are some red flags that you look for when interviewing with a company?

here are mine

1. they don't call or write you back telling you that you were unsuccessful
2. they tell you to have an interview at a specific time/date and don't ask you if that's a good time for you
3. you write them a thank you note for the interview but never hear back from them
4. you only had 5 mins to ask them questions and they cut you off to end of the interview
6. the interviewer doesn't try to sell you on the job and you do all the selling


what are your red flags?

Is this post for real? Try applying to a Government job and see if they ask you 'hey sweetie is this time ok for you?'. You want the job? Show up to when your interview is scheduled. It's up to you to tell them if you have a conflict and to see if they're flexible, not the other way around

It's not a recruiters job to 'sell you on the job'. You should do your own research and know what you're applying to.

I'm not sure what they told you in university, but you're a dime a dozen now kid. This is the real world, suck it up.

OldMarriedGuy wrote: ↑ It's not a recruiters job to 'sell you on the job'. You should do your own research and know what you're applying to.

I'm not sure what they told you in university, but you're a dime a dozen now kid. This is the real world, suck it up.

I'm not sure what cynical shithole you work in but quality firms that compete for top candidates have to sell themselves during the interview. Top candidates will receive multiple offers.

Often times, my firm will request employees with similar backgrounds give candidates who are still deliberating a call to really sell the work experience they'll get out of working here.

JuliTheNub wrote: ↑ I'm not sure what cynical shithole you work in but quality firms that compete for top candidates have to sell themselves during the interview. Top candidates will receive multiple offers.

Often times, my firm will request employees with similar backgrounds give candidates who are still deliberating a call to really sell the work experience they'll get out of working here.

Sounds like you guys are really begging for some 'top candidates'.

JuliTheNub wrote: ↑ I'm not sure what cynical shithole you work in but quality firms that compete for top candidates have to sell themselves during the interview. Top candidates will receive multiple offers.

Often times, my firm will request employees with similar backgrounds give candidates who are still deliberating a call to really sell the work experience they'll get out of working here.

If they're selling candidates that hard doesn't that sort of indicate your place isn't that sought after?

To be honest I will categorize this as a pretty well crafted troll thread.
He was pretty good in making his first post sound passive-aggressive, to suggest he was cheezed off at some company who interviewed him but never let him know if he was the successful candidate. The troll is that he's setting other people up to get angry about his lack of transparency, and to argue with each other about whether the OP should have any expectation about a final callback.

And he deliberately numbered his points to miss #5, both to annoy people, and to give people fodder to create personal attacks suggesting that his resume had similar error, which may be the cause of him not getting a callback.