Sorry to hear that job interviews can go very strange sometimes as HR people are very special people.
However, as already mentioned I would update immediately and make sure it is complete which is very important especially if its not clear why you left the company before. For your understanding fixed term work contracts are not very common in our country.
Second and most important. If you are asked asked a question in a job interview, you have to answer the question doesn't matter how silly it sounds for you. But never ever ask a counterquestion first that's very unpolite. I guess thats everywhere the same.
Put yourself in the place of the other. At this time for him/her was the interview over and the decsion already taken.
That's it. Next time you have a similar situation, be sure to ask what other jobs hey have in mind before accepting the interview. It also helps prevent you from seeming desperate, which can aid salary negotiations.
is it possible that the person who's contacted you was a headhunter/HR consultant, to whom the company has outsourced its HR, and he just wanted to register your data in case a suitable offer comes up?
You apply for a job with your CV and the recruiter must make sure that their job description matches your CV and expertise prior arranging an interview. If for clear reasons it doesn't then your application gets rejected by sending email with note reading "Unfortunately.. bla bla bla ... and wishing you best of luck in future endevours... bala bla bla" kind of reply.
I applied for many jobs in the past, but I have never received verbal rejection or denial addressed to me during interview
I can only feel sorry for you. You must be very upset and I would be too. I mean being called for an interview, being told that the job has already been given to someone else and that after having heard about my story, being told no thank you you are not a good match and by the way, update your cv and make it clearer? I would be pissed off as it sucks. Courage!
I wonder why you did not ask them what kind of jobs they had in mind for you? This is simple interpersonal skills, especially over the phone. If you ask things they feel valued and appreciated, besides, you have a clear picture too.
At the time of applying my contract wasn't over yet, but if there is a 2 month delay between initial application and final interview, so be it. Of course I change it now for other applications. It was presented there as if I lied about it, which is absolutely not the case.
Second, if I do not get any information about the job, how can I present myself properly? I DID ask, in an email conversation to set up the interview, what these jobs would be, and was told (by someone else, admittedly, introducing more potential for miscommunication....) that I would hear this during the interview. If this interview then starts without giving me this information, but rather by asking what I want to do in "the function I applied for" I HAVE to ask what it's about. I think it is not polite to not give a candidate information and then expect them to know what it is about. I think it is not impolite at all to ask for some basic information, so that you know what you are talking about. If an interview is a matter of saying whatever they want to hear and just agreeing and nodding affirmatively to whatever the HR people feel like doing that day I would be just playing a role and not presenting an actual person.
Finally, if you take the trouble of having an interview in the first place, then surely this candidate must have had something that made you think he/she was suitable for the job. The information on the cV (which is all you have until the interview starts) cannot be a reason to suddenly change your mind.
In the mean time I thought about what happened a bit and I can only imagine that the jobs they had in mind were in the mean time also gone and/or the HR person did not read the CV trough properly (i.e. overlooked/misread things) I also heard from some people I talked to that this company actually has not got the best reputation when it comes to interpersonal contact and behaviour, so I guess I just had a bad hand of picking...
But I will make my CV more clear (or try anyway) since we can always strive to make things better and will apply to other jobs and never agree to an interview again without prior knowledge of job concerned. Lesson learned!
if i was the interviewer and i would have seen your CV before the call (that i need to do-> preparation, even more when an assistant or HR guy made the arrangement) and then noticed youre not fitting... i just would have made a call to cancel before wasting my and your time by letting you going into detail. but funny how you can do with no profile in front of you?! i assume you had the position in mind you applied originally for?!
I completely sympathize with you. People in hiring positions can be smug idiots. I was once invited to a second interview about 30km driving distance on a snowy day when you can barely drive only to be told by the interviewer (who happened to be the person already hired to the position) that they had nothing for me. They could have told this easily over the phone. There was a second incident which was even more ridiculous where after waiting 2 hours to be interviewed by the IT responsible I was interviewed by the finance manager after being told the other person was not present!!!
I got to a second interview at a firm one time, the guy comes into the room, sits down with a copy of my details, smiles, says... "ok I havent looked at your CV, tell me about your history."
Even though I wanted the job, I was very close to telling him something along of the lines of... if you want to hire someone, you don't even take the trouble to read their CV before meeting them?
To be honest, I should have, because when they have shown so little interest the chance of them hiring you is slim at best anyhow*
*In this case, they were prepared to offer me the job but I went elsewhere. Happily so.... some months later they closed their office. No doubt because their dealings included that level of courtesy and professionalism shown to me.
a hellish interview i got into happened here in zurich. i made through the 2nd round into the assessment center and the comp hired 4 actors from a theater (maybe it was from winterthur theater) and after i got through the usual postbox and group tests, i was confronted with a 1-to-1 test, as i would have to manage staff.
ok, the situation was like that: comp hat a financial crisis, i need to motivate my team to do overhours. employees are entitled to reject that, but they dont know and its up to me to tell it or not.
the guy i had to talk to was meant to be the best of my team but since a couple of weeks he is delivering bad results.
i needed to find out why, tell him its not good and motivate him to do better and the overhours.
i asked some questions and by this "cornered him" and this guy snapped!
he through over the table and grabbed me by the arm and i said: stop!
i said there is 2 reactions id do. calling the police and/or punching him in the face. assassment was over, i didnt get the job but it was a hell of an experience.
you dont believe me? its a true story... leider...,
the funny bit was that in this room from the comps side were 3 spectators: my future boss, hr lady and a psychologist!
after i told them frankly what i was thinking and doing, the boss laughed and said it was the most refreshing answer and reaction he heard so far. and the hr and psychologist ladies went from pale to red and back again. obviously it was their idea. going new ways n stuff... leaving the old path to new ways of modern hiring processes... wtf? i was thinking what made them do that? what comp is it, do they have some weird psychokiller to be replaced and want to make sure the follow up was "normal"? or is the rest of my team maladjusted and id be a ringleader?
but it was fun looking back... will never forget that...
I had a similar experience with the first interview i had for CH. my CV clearly states the technologies i work with. at that interview they were mentioning a job involving technologies in wich i had absolutely no experience.
The thing is that the headhunter who sent them my cv obviously had not much experience in the IT area. I guess this was the case for you also, either an unexperienced headhunter or HR.
This is not surprising as the majority of headhunters seem to have limited understanding of job requirements. Only the other day I received what was obviously a spam email from a headhunter based in the UK
Firstly it opened with a statement apologising if we had spoken in the last few days. My expectation would be that a head hunter should know if they had spoken to me rather then a bulk email to a database. Secondly I have never spoken to this person in my life. Thirdly it was asking me to volunteer people I would consider suitable for a role.
In summary it demonstrates a lack of professionalism to firstly not even know ifwe had spoken and then to expect me to volunteer other peoples names to the same lack of professionalism.
I have had interviews where The interviers has asked me directly whether I am planning family and also questioned whether i se a problem working with collegues from a country that my country was in war with 100 years ago??!! Huh??
Just file it under experience, and move on. The world of job hunting can be weird and wonderful. Sounds to me like there was a disconnect between you and the company/interviewer. It happens.
It may be that your CV was (unintentionally) misleading, and they thought your experience was different, or more extensive, than it turned out to be.
Or it may be that they have a policy of talking to all applicants just in case they have something else to offer. When they use phrases like "other opportunities", don't assume this means firm vacancies.
That said, it doesn't sound like they handled it very well. Maybe the 'interviewer' was inexperienced and not a native English speaker? Overall, it isn't the worst experience you could have, though disappointing, for sure.
The important thing is to learn from it. Even if awkwardly expressed, take her comments about the CV on board, and ask yourself what else the experience taught you, and how you might use that knowledge next time.
Sorry have to disagree here. If I asked a potential employee why they thought they were suitable for a job they knew nothing about and they gave me an answer, I would think they were a bit dim and not likely to question things when there could be problem, and just go along with what they are told even if they though it incorrect!
Sounds like the company or HR at least were bunch of nobs in my opinion!!