The interview process was actually fine. I met with directors and although the interview was more question answer question answer and extremely rigid, I was still interested. I was given the opportunity at the end to ask questions which I did every time. I moved to the next stage which was 2 back to back interviews with different teams. I loved the first one, it was very exploratory and I felt as though I was able to tell my story, it made me feel so much more comfortable and engaged.
After all of this, I did receive the offer for the position. The process from 1st interview to verbal offer was over 3 months.
No letter of offer came for weeks, I followed up a number of times. There was consistent let downs and missed calls even when they were scheduled.
When I finally received a contract, a full 1 month after I received the verbal offer, the contract was missing some information. For example, my notice period was logged as "XXX weeks". Which I raised with them and they did not change. They just confirmed it was 4 weeks. There were also other mistakes in the contract that were not addressed.
I had absolutely no idea when I was suppose to start, when I received the verbal offer, we agreed the middle of November, then it was the start of December.
The delays on everything was a complete break down in communication, I had no medical completed either.
My hours changed then after asking this initially, after I reconfirmed at offer stage and followed up a number of times again, I found out they were different.
It was the most unorganised and frustrating process. I couldn't wait any longer at this stage and it raised major red flags for me. I received another offer and informed the TA manager directly that I was withdrawing.
Then later that week, I got a call from IT support in the company regarding setting up my IT equipment, as they had not been informed of my decision.
THEN, I was contacted by the office to ask why I missed my medical appointment, as they had not been informed either. They had no idea.
2 weeks go by and I have not been contacted regarding the pick up for the IT equipment. Again, I had to contact the office who surprise surprise, hadn't been made aware of this either.
Many of you will read this and think, there is no way all of this happened. I could not make this stuff up. train wreck, and to be honest, a really awful thing to put anybody through at any time but especially in the middle of a pandemic.
I felt disappointed for the person that I would have been reporting to, as I found them to be very personable and professional. I feel if the process had been managed better in Ireland, all of this could have been avoided.