Run away!

A few months ago, I interviewed for a new brand they were planning to develop. There were two rounds: the first was with HR, and some time later, I immediately proceeded to the second round, an interview with the boss. In short, throughout the entire process, they gave you the impression of, “Wow, you’re really impressive and a great match for what we’re looking for! You also have experience, have sold our brand, and understand the market well. When do you think you could start!?” That was the kind of impression they gave. The interview lasted more than an hour and a half, during which they asked an incredible number of questions—no exaggeration, an absolutely enormous number! They also asked each question in great detail. I imagine this was because a new department was being established and they were launching a new brand, so they lacked a lot of experience and needed information to use as a reference. I therefore shared much of the experience I had accumulated over more than ten years, including my own perspectives. In the end, they said that they still had several other interviews and would notify me later, but they did not say the latest date by which they would respond. After that, there was no further news. In summary, this interview was basically an intentional attempt to indirectly extract all of the interviewee’s experience and use it as a reference for developing their own new brand. They were not genuinely interested in working with you; they asked a pile of questions that went far beyond what would normally be asked in an interview (basically, they were the kind of questions a company would discuss in depth during a meeting about market conditions!). After looking more closely at the reviews, I discovered that I was not the first interviewee to have a bad experience. All I can say is: everyone, please proceed with caution and keep your eyes open. Our time and experience as interviewees are both valuable, and we should not be treated this way, right? They are incredibly selfish! I can only remind everyone not to be too kind by offering advice or casually revealing everything you know, allowing the other party to manipulate you into handing over your personal experience as a reference template for their company! In fact, if you want to know whether a company is good and has integrity, you can tell a lot simply by looking at how it treats interviewees. As they say, the devil is in the details!