A few weeks ago, a VP emailed me asking if I could come into the office for an interview the following week. After I happily agreed, he asked for the best number to reach me at. I gave it to him and said that I would see him the following week.
I walked into the office, and after telling the secretary my name, they inform me that this was supposed to be a phone interview with the VP. Strange. I met with the VP, and the first thing he said was, "... So I thought this was supposed to be a phone interview". I immediately apologize for the miscommunication, and I informed him that the email stated that I should swing by the office. He got a little irritated and said that he read through the email, and it was definitely supposed to be a phone interview. I apologized once again and we started the interview. I was completely rattled, and it definitely showed throughout the interview.
Here's what the email chain looks like
Hi X2, Thank you for reaching out to _____, what's your availability to come by our office next week for an interview? x/x/2018 works best for me.
Hi VP,
x/x/2018 works great at xx:xx P.M.
Hi X2,
Perfect, lets do xx:xx on x/x/2018. What's the easiest number to contact you at?
Hi VP,
You can contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx, See you on x/x/2018.
VP: Thanks.
Has anyone ever had something like this happen?
Stress test?
That would be nothing compared to the MD at Lehman who would ask his prospective interns/analysts to open up one of the windows in the room as the interview started. Unbeknownst to the candidate, the window was cemented shut. One intern panicked so badly after he was chewed out by said MD for his failure that he threw a chair through the window. Hustle was 10/10, but he still didn't get it.
I just laughed my ass off, thanks for that.
take my SB
^^Liar's Poker
Maybe he was confused between you and another candidate.
Re-read the email, what does it say? Better, just post it here with no details, I want to know who is right.
edited original post to show email chain
Did he actually say, "come into the office," or did he just ask you to interview with him? Because if he said to come in for an interview, and asked for your number, I would assume the number was just to reach me for something around me coming in, like to confirm.
Who "stress tests" that way in reality, though? He even had his secretary in on it? That's a really hard sell. Maybe he suggested at interview and you took it to be in person, but he never specifically said for you to actually come in.
If he "asked for the best number to reach you at", then it was supposed to be a phone interview.
Lets not forget that he also asked 5 minutes before that email what my schedule looked like to come into the office. Specifically picked a day and everything.
I didn't see your updated your post until now.
I think by the time he wrote his second and third email to you, he had forgotten that he had asked you to meet in person in his first email. So he accidentally switched things up on you. I think he should have acknowledged that when he re-read the email exchange, instead of getting irritated, but he probably only read his second email to you where he was asking for your number to set up a phone interview.
No, it wasn't. The original email states "come by the office." Never in my life have I seen or used that phrasing for a phone interview. And I routinely exchange numbers with people prior to physical meetings, in case someone's late, can't find me, etc.
I guarantee you the VP went back and checked his email chain, and now knows he was wrong. He'll either ding you to avoid having someone around who thinks he's an airhead, or recommend you out of guilt.
I've made a similar mistake. HR put the wrong info on my calendar and I never bothered to check the original email. Easy to mix up if you're scheduling 50+ interviews in a week.
A decent person would have called or emailed to apologize after the fact, once they realized their mistake.
You don’t get to VP by admitting your mistakes.
If I was you I would have pulled out my phone then and there and asked him to his face how else you possibly could've interpreted that.
I wouldn't sweat it, man. You don't want to work with someone like that anyway.
Yeah - he was wrong but there is nothing you can do about it now. Look ahead.
Hopefully it doesn't hurt my chances. That's what I'm concerned about.
Very confusing.
I've been in similar situations where the timing / method of the meeting is unclear. The best remedy is to repeat the time, date, and location back to the person.
Also, in the event there was confusion, you did the right thing by physically being there. Don't over apologize for going above and beyond, apologize once, reiterate your eagerness, and focus on how you're going to help his team.
VP is an asshat. I would call him out on it.
VP is kind of a cunt. But, I've had interviewers say they will confirm later, and never do, only to call anyway. Some will say they are going to call at certain time, then call 10 mins later and ask if it's still a good time.
But, one thing I will say, when someone asks to setup an in-person, have the person confirm their address. Either, "is the address below the correct one" or some form of, "should I call at the desk or let you know once I'm in the lobby". If he didn't give you the address directly, he might've been thinking his colloquialisms were being followed even though, the truth is, we can't read minds.
Rule of thumb - only apologize once. I don't care if you're right or wrong, only apologize once.
Whether you were right or wrong doesn't matter, you the kid being interviewed and he's the VP hiring. He could tell you to go get him a black coffee from Starbucks and when you bring it back and it's not tea, he'll be pissed.
Don't worry much about it, and don't look into people's responses too much either. If you get it or you don't, there's more things to look at than just one.
Assuming that the email chain is verbatim, then this guy is either a) too stupid to have re-read what he wrote correctly, or b) a proud/pompous asshole who didn't want to admit he was wrong. I agree with the above poster that the only thing you did wrong was apologize multiple times. This is probably not someone you want to work under for any duration, so I personally think you dodged a bullet on this one, although it sucks you wasted your time going over there.
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