I arrived at the agency's location on E42nd street 10 minutes prior to the planned start of my 1 and a half hour interview. The receptionist called the HR rep who greeted me and walked me to the conference room that was booked for these interviews where I was told to wait for the first interviewer. The room felt like an oven so but I didn't want to say anything at that point.
I was scheduled to meet with the ACD at 1 pm but by 1:15 no one had showed up. I texted the HR rep just to check on status ad was told to wait as a meeting was running late. Nothing out of the ordinary, this always happens in ad agency interviews given the busy schedules. Nevertheless I had to wait outside the room given the extremely hot temperature in the room.
At 1:30 I received a text from HR to let me know the second interviewer (a senior PM) would be running a few minutes late and to just wait for them. I responded that it was no problem but also told them that the first interviewer didn't show up so I asked if I was still meeting with him. I was asked if Could stay longer than planned so I could get with them at 2:30 instead, as the ACD's input was very important in deciding whom to hire..
Again, I had to indicate that this was OK, but I was getting worried on timing as I needed to be back at my current job by 3:30.
No one showed up for the second interview - I texted HR at 1:50 to let them know I had yet to meet with anyone- and finally at 2 pm the HR rep showed up to apologize, tell mew everyone was very busy, and if I could stay and meet with them from 2:30 to 4.
I get it, i work in an ad agency as well and I know how difficult is to find time for any meeting, let alone an interview. Still, i was getting annoyed that I had now wasted 2 hours (1 getting there and 1 waiting), but I had no other choice at this point so I decided to wait. I got a fellow PM at my current job to cover for me for the rest of the afternoon so I sat back and waited.
Finally at 2:35 someone showed up to talk to me but it was none of the people I was supposed to meet. Instead, an associate PM who wasn't related to the project I was interviewing for, showed up and told me she was asked to stop by and talk to me as the rest of the interviewers were running late. She was very polite but she was clearly not aware of either the project nor the role I was interviewing for, so didn't know what questions to ask so we just chatted about a previous agency we both had worked at.
2 hours into this process and no sign of anyone I was supposed to meet. Eventually the SPM showed up, very apologetic, so we started the interview process at 3:15. He also told me that I would only be meeting with one more person instead of 2, the ACD, as his director had left for the day.
The ACD finally showed up at 3:50 just to say that he had no time to meet with me that day and asked to reschedule with HR for the following week. He was obnoxiously rude, never bother to even apologize for having me wait and now having to reschedule, and almost snapped at me when I asked if there was any day in particular that would be best for him, based on his schedule. His snarky comment was that his schedule is always busy s "talk to HR to find some time".
Despite my schedule being as busy , I went out of my way to clear up my calendar for the day that was convenient for the RAPPP people, yet I ended up wasting my afternoon in a boiling hot conference room only to be told to reschedule.
No thanks, this was the worst agency experience I have had so I decided to stay clear.