I've been exploring my career options lately. Like where I am but I'm underpaid and in August I'm going to have to pay a lot more for my son's therapy. I was just told by a recruiter that a company had decided to go with another candidate. After 2 interviews, multiple phone calls and a salary negotiation. I'm thoroughly irritated that so much of my time was just wasted. I was thinking that it would make much more sense if a prospective employer had to pay some small, standard rate for interview time. It would certainly be better for the job seeker, and I think it would ultimately help the employer as they would then do more screening, waste less time with interviews that tie up their employees, and probably fill vacancies much faster.
Yes, indeed a waste of your time. Did you ask for feedback, why they went with the other other person? It may come handy for next time.
I received feedback and I understood it. It had to do with a specialized sub domain of my profession which I do have some experience in but not as much as they wanted (I'm a Senior SharePoint developer/architect who's done a lot in that space - but they specifically wanted someone with more experience with SharePoint Online - I have some, 1 year). The feedback I received was that while they found me very knowledgeable they were looking for someone with more SharePoint Online experience.
The thing is, that was never stressed at anytime during the process. The recruiter reached out to me, said I looked like a great fit, and sent me the description. The description didn't stress it and I had experience in everything indicated in the description. That's why I pursued it.
So after spending the time and hope pursuing this, which seemed to go well, I get feedback stating that I didn't seem to have enough experience in something they never stayed was a requirement. I went through 2 interviews, many back and forth phone calls, a salary negotiation, taking lunch sitting in my car to talk to them, and hoping for about three weeks. And then nothing for 5 days until I pinged back the recruiter (they left me hanging).
So now I feel like I wasted my time because they either lied to me from the beginning, or else gave me a lie as an excuse for something else (I'm almost 50 and honestly there aren't many developers my age).
Yeah that’s drawing much time from someone without a commitment. Usually salary negotiations don’t take place until an offer is made. It can be withdrawn if you can’t reach an agreement but the idea that they might have been conducting parallel negotiations with different people for one position is unsavory.
Think of it this way though - if a company would treat you badly during the interview process, you are probably better off not working for them.