I was contacted via LinkedIn by the Kaplan recruiter, I replied and we had a phone interview first. Overall, very professional, straight to the point and questions were relevant to the position. We setup a second interview within the next 3 days to meet with 3 people, a director and two developers. As I arrived, I felt a bit uneasy because a couple of my answers on the phone interview were not at 100%, you know when you get the feeling, but nevertheless I decided to be positive and continue on the second phase. Now, before I get into details, let me just say that I read almost everyday articles related to the industry, keep up with trends, and know a thing or two about interviewing designers and developers, I have been doing so for almost 15 years now.
Here are the particulars, first of the room was very small with no visuals setup; secondly, one of the interviewers didn't show up; third, they came in opened-laptops-in-hand which tends to eliminate eye contact and actual human interaction; fourth, director left the room for another meeting 15 minutes after we started which leads me to believe they had already made up their minds about not hiring me; fifth, they lied to me.
I understand that we are in times were time is one of the most precious assets, to me is invaluable because I hold a full time job, I freelance and I am a father of multiples. I said they lied to me because they told me that the decision would be made in early January to give time for more interviews, after sending a thank you email to the recruiter the next day, he replied that they decided to go with another candidate. Well, I would understand that they interviewed they best candidate after me, but then I see that they have re-posted the job at multiple job sites which means they are still interviewing.
I have already spent enough time here telling you my story. I believe Kaplan is a great organization and they are doing top notch advances in the Education industry. The reason why this wen down this way, and I was not told right away or getting a courtesy email, would the recruiter had send me the dismissive reply regardless of my thank you message? It does not matter, what matters is that be Kaplan, Google, GM, ABC, Disney; job seekers should not get discouraged, do not fall of the workforce because they say no, if you fall ten times then ten times you get back up.
