4 ms·

Is it common for employers to leave you sitting alone in a conference room during an interview with no explanation or instructions? This happened to me straight

Is it common for employers to leave you sitting alone in a conference room during an interview with no explanation or instructions? This happened to me straight out of college and I didn't handle it well admittedly during a poor interview on my part, I was already incredibly anxious and frustrated from my poor performance and I just walked out and never looked back. I feel like this is an actual interview tactic in some book somewhere although I can't imagine why.

mcintyre1994 8y ago
That's the only time it's happened to me. It's fun to think that it was a tactic and I was supposed to either leave or do that one magic trick to wow them and change their mind :) but more likely I think the second guy just decided it was a no but was too awkward to say, so panicked and went to find the first guy to ask him to tell me.
- lucozade 8y ago
  It's unlikely to be tactic, in general. If it's in a normal working day (as against a specific hiring event), it's likely to be a minor failure of logistics. In your case, it's probably not that. It's more likely that the second interviewer thought that it wasn't worth their time carrying on with the interview. For example, if their expectations of your experience/knowledge were way off reality. Very rude of them not to just say so if that is the case though.
dan-robertson 8y ago
This happened to me I think every time I was interviewed. But this was only being left for a short time between interviews (but maybe I was told that some next step would happen in a few minutes). Waiting time depends from place to place. Eg at a small company in a glass walled room where whoever was to interview me next could see me from their desk, the waiting times were shorter. I sympathise with feeling anxious about it but I suppose the only thing to do about that is to hope you won’t get long waiting times or to go to a lot of interviews and come to expect it. I doubt it is a tactic as it doesn’t reflect well on the company. Are they looking for someone who won’t mind if their colleagues are late for a meeting?

mcintyre1994 8y ago

That's the only time it's happened to me. It's fun to think that it was a tactic and I was supposed to either leave or do that one magic trick to wow them and change their mind :) but more likely I think the second guy just decided it was a no but was too awkward to say, so panicked and went to find the first guy to ask him to tell me.

lucozade 8y ago
It's unlikely to be tactic, in general. If it's in a normal working day (as against a specific hiring event), it's likely to be a minor failure of logistics. In your case, it's probably not that. It's more likely that the second interviewer thought that it wasn't worth their time carrying on with the interview. For example, if their expectations of your experience/knowledge were way off reality. Very rude of them not to just say so if that is the case though.

dan-robertson 8y ago

This happened to me I think every time I was interviewed. But this was only being left for a short time between interviews (but maybe I was told that some next step would happen in a few minutes). Waiting time depends from place to place. Eg at a small company in a glass walled room where whoever was to interview me next could see me from their desk, the waiting times were shorter. I sympathise with feeling anxious about it but I suppose the only thing to do about that is to hope you won’t get long waiting times or to go to a lot of interviews and come to expect it. I doubt it is a tactic as it doesn’t reflect well on the company. Are they looking for someone who won’t mind if their colleagues are late for a meeting?