力匠工程顧問有限公司

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The following is something that happened to me recently. I’m really angry, but I also feel that I was somewhat negligent, so I’m sharing this here for others who are looking for jobs!

Around the beginning of January, a company I had applied to sent me an interview invitation through 104. At the first interview on January 4, a woman from the company interviewed me. The conversation was very brief and ended after about five minutes! After I got home, I figured I probably hadn’t been selected, so I continued looking for other jobs.

Then, around January 7, the company called to tell me that they wanted to conduct a second interview and an interview with the supervisor. After arranging a time, I went for the second interview on January 10. The interviewer that day was their supervisor, who asked me a few basic questions and introduced the company (which was actually more or less the same as what the woman had told me). It wasn’t until the following conversation that I truly “misunderstood” and thought I had been hired!

Supervisor: You’re currently still in school, right?

Me: Yes, I’m graduating this year. Next semester, I only need to go back to school for two classes.

Supervisor: Okay, on the days you have class, I’ll let you leave early. I’ll count the time you leave early against your annual leave, meaning you’ll use the annual leave you accumulate later to make up for it.

Me: Okay.

Supervisor: I see that you wrote 2xK as your expected salary on your résumé. Would that be enough for you?

Me: Yes. Since I’m just entering the workforce, I don’t expect too high a salary.

Supervisor: Can you start work after the Lunar New Year?

Me: Yes.

Me: May I ask whether the dress code is just casual and convenient?

Supervisor: Yes, casual is fine.

Supervisor: Okay, I’ll ask the woman to notify you by phone or through 104 by next Friday about your “official start date.”

Okay, I was extremely happy after the second interview! I thought I had been hired! The following week, I began waiting for the company to give me my official start date. I waited and waited, but never received any notification, so I sent a message through 104 myself to ask (partly because I was worried I might have missed a message). The conversation was as follows:

(January 16)

Me: Hello Ms. Chang, I’m Ms. X, who went to the company for a second interview last Thursday. May I ask when my official start date will be after the Lunar New Year? The supervisor said last week that I would be notified again this week, and I was worried I might have missed a message, so I wanted to check with you. Thank you, and sorry to bother you.

Company: Hello Ms. X, the company expects to notify you before the end of the month. We will contact you by message or phone at that time. Thank you.

(Okay, now we come to January 31.)

Me: Hello, I’m Ms. X, who previously had a second interview. Your company said that you would notify me of my official start date before the end of the month, so I wanted to ask when that would be. Another company has invited me to work there, but I would prefer to work for your company, so I wanted to ask whether I have been hired. Thank you. :)

Company: Hello Ms. X, we’ll get back to you tomorrow~

That’s right! Did you notice? They clearly said they would notify me by the Friday after the second interview, but for some reason they changed their wording and said they would notify me before the end of January ^_^

Okay, I admit that at this point I should have had some doubts and started looking for jobs! But I didn’t, because I still thought they had hired me and that they simply hadn’t finalized the exact start time yet. So I continued waiting and waiting, until it was January 31! They didn’t notify me during this entire period, and I didn’t call again either. As shown above, I sent another message on January 31 and received the reply, “We’ll get back to you tomorrow~.”

I mentioned that other companies had invited me to work because I had discussed it with my family before saying that. My family told me not to make the company feel that I absolutely had to work for them or that I was too eager.

At the time, I thought that since I had already waited until the end of the month, one more day wouldn’t matter, and I politely agreed. Then today arrived! And they even sent the message just before the end of their workday :) Here is the conversation:

Company: Thank you for your interest in the 【XX Assistant】 position at our company. Unfortunately, after consideration, we have determined that your experience does not sufficiently match the requirements of the position. Thank you.

Me: Okay, no problem. I hope your company can notify applicants earlier next time, because at first you said I would be notified by the Friday after the second interview, but later changed it to before the end of the month. I actually waited for quite a long time, and the interview with the supervisor also gave me the impression that I had been hired. I wanted to share how I felt with your company, but I also thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Did you see that!!! I was completely left with a giant question mark!!! 👨🏿❓ What’s especially disrespectful is that after making me wait so long, they brushed me off with a standard 104 rejection template???

I think what made me angry today was this: If the company had already decided from the beginning not to hire me, or thought the likelihood of hiring me was very low, why didn’t they just say so at the outset? I didn’t look for any other jobs during this entire period because I kept thinking I already had a job! And now, with the Lunar New Year approaching, I can’t find a job anymore. It has left me completely overwhelmed.

After discussing it with my family and boyfriend, we all felt that this was outrageous. However, I also learned a lesson from this: In the future, if I encounter vague responses like the one from the supervisor above during an interview, I should directly ask whether I have been hired, so I don’t end up in this situation again—only finding out just before the Lunar New Year that I wasn’t hired.

That’s the lesson I wanted to share with everyone. I may have been partly at fault for not clearly asking whether I had been hired, but I feel even more strongly that this company’s way of handling things and its procedures are absolutely baffling ^_^ The thought of having to start looking for a job again after the Lunar New Year is genuinely overwhelming~