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Handling Reference Abuse
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Alison Green
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Alison Green | Ask A Manager
April 23, 2010
A reader writes:
After a 45-minute phone interview with a small non-profit in another state, I was invited to interview in-person. The interviewer contacted me two days prior to the interview to request that I provide the following to her, in less than 24 hours:
- Phone numbers for
- A complete executive level communications plan. (I provided 10 pages).
- Two writing samples on a topic of the interviewer’s choice, written in two different styles.
To comply with these demands, I had to rearrange my work schedule, already crammed by the planned out-of-town interview. I lost business, and a lot of sleep.
When I reached the interview, they informed me that I would be in back-to-back 35-minute interviews with SIX people, one of whom was the prior holder of the position. Then I would lead a strategy session. After all that, they told me they’d let me know in two weeks.
After three weeks, they told me the position was no longer available. I found out they kept the prior person, who was, unsurprisingly, a rather unpleasant interview who spent the group session literally making unpleasant faces in response to my answers, although I tried to be as tactful as possible.
I guess all you can do is laugh, but I have two questions:
1) Do you think this was some sort of shock-and-awe interview system, that I failed?
2) Is there a way to reassure my references this won’t happen again? Or should I just try to develop new ones? I really feel awful!
For that matter, if I can throw in a third question, should someone request my references prior to the interview again, is there a way I can tactfully find out whether they’re planning to ambush them prior to even meeting me?
