"Absolutely unprofessional! I didn't exactly apply to this position. I was recommended for it and the company was recommended to me. After seeing the job ad, I told this person that as someone with a Bachelor's and a postgrad in ELT, I didn't think I exactly fit (seeing as they were looking for someone with a Bachelor's degree, preferably in Economics), but the person urged me to apply anyway, assuring me that I, along with my skills, was the kind of person they were looking for. I applied. The call to schedule the interview: The only relevant question (to them): "What salary would you NOT work for?" What? The impression I got is, "How low do you think we could go?" The interview a couple of days later (Let me give you the basics): I got to the main office. There was no one to open the door and it required a keycard. Thankfully, one of the employees was outside, smoking a cigarette, and he kindly opened the door. I walked into this enormous room (which resembled a garage or a space meant for an appliance store) filled with tables and computers with maybe a hundred people sitting in front of them. An employee greeted me and took me upstairs. The upstairs area was even more construction ground looking that the downstairs area. The whole area winds around this big gaping hole where you can see everybody downstairs as if they were mice in a cage. On one side, the side on which I had to wait, was a single table and a couple of plastic chairs. On the other side of the hole, there were a couple of more tables, which I am assuming was some sort of a makeshift canteen area or at least a sorry excuse for one. By the way, as a side note, this employee was the only nice and semi-professional person there. Also, even though I would not mention any names anyway, due to my respect for all these people's privacy, the fact that I keep calling everyone "the employee" is not a choice. Not a single person introduced themselves to me. I walked into the interview room to be met with the same kind of space as the downstairs area, only a bit smaller, with a bunch of tables put together to make a long conference table. There were a bunch of strange wheelie chairs surrounding it and I was met with three people, the interviewers, sitting on one side. They told me to sit down opposite from them. The first question I got asked from one of the girls was "Who are you?" Okay... The next thing she asked was, "Why didn't you use a template for your CV and why isn't it more professional?" I kindly explained to her that it is, because I'd done it the way we were instructed to in university by our professors. With the questions she asked me, it was obvious she'd never read my CV at all. She also thought I'd worked at my university for some reason. They were all so unprofessional and downright insulting. They treat the interviewees as if their company is their last hope and you're begging for a job. They asked me to prove my English and when I told them that I'm an English teacher that teaches at a C1 level I was told, "Well, not everyone with your degree speaks good English." Anyway, we continued the interview in English, suspiciously, only with one of the interviewers actually speaking English and not in an exemplary way. They asked some personal questions, like who exactly recommended the job to me and even though they technically answered my questions, it seemed like they had no idea what their company does. Also, once I asked about the salary, which by the law of this country, should have been provided in the job ad (which as it turns out was just marketing anyway since it was nothing like what they actually described), I was rudely told "We haven't gotten to that point yet." as if to say, "We haven't offered you the job yet." I also never said I'd accept. Especially not with all the information that was left out and/or "generalized". At this point I was asked what I expected from the pay and after I told them what their competitors offer (who don't look for a BA/BS from their employees, which is specified in this company's job ad), I was told, "Well, we don't need your university degree. We'd like it if you had one, but it's not necessary." Then why would you put it in the job ad as necessary? I'm going over the word count here (otherwise I could go on for days and in much more detail), but in short, it was absolutely unprofessional, bordering on illegal (they never actually told me how much the starting salary is), and it seems like their interviewers could benefit from some NLP courses. Also, the working environment seems very much like a health and safety hazard. I advise all of you thinking of joining this company to really re-think that decision. From what I was told and what I saw, it offers absolutely nothing, not in terms of learning and not in terms of earning."
