Volatile management.
Distrusting.
Burnt out from past hires.
Dishonest to current employees.
I applied for their marketing position and was followed up by one of the owners. We had a productive phone interview that lead to an in person interview. Unfortunately, that is where things went south. I showed up early and had an interview with the owner and general manager. I wasn't seen till 5 min past our interview time, but I brushed it off and it wasn't a big deal. When I was called into the general managers office, the owner disclosed that we would be going through my experience and expertise at my current role to see if I'd be a good fit for this prospective role. As the conversation started, I discovered that there would be no conversational tact from the owner. I was asked when I started working at my current role and I mentioned at the end of the summer. He inquired if it was July or some other time and I replied, "July/August." He responded, "You don't know, okay." What he, ironically, didn't know was, I am very literal, I was signed on as an employee in July, but didn't start until August. Regardless, I ignored it and carried on with the interview. We went into the specifics of my responsibilities at my current place of employment. The owner consistently interrupted me and made accusations and assumptions about my role. I politely corrected him 3 times until I got the picture that he was discrediting and distrustful of my work rather than being exploratory or even just having some healthy skepticism. When he inquired about my job responsibilities, he was in disbelief that I was being honest about my current company's revenue achievements because he didn't see our company vehicles around town as much as other competitors. To him, it didn't make sense that we were doing as well in business based off of his exposure to our company on the road. This was a very presumptuous and unprofessional gesture to have for any prospective candidate. He even inquired how many service vehicles my company had; I gave him an exact number this time. I shared that we outsource some of our marketing efforts for scalability and mentioned a web development team that provided web maintenance and updates. I shared how I provide SEO expertise regarding the content and give page designs and layouts to our web team and they would update the site upon request. He interrupted and said, "So you don't provide SEO, the outsourced web team does." It wasn't even a question, he just assumed. I immediately responded with, "If I'm the one doing the keyword research (utilizing tools such as Google Search Console and SEMrush), and give it to the web team to input onto our site, I think I'm providing the SEO for our company." He acknowledged my statement with a grunt and tried to carry on the interview. I politely interjected and ended the interview, mentioning that we aren't a good fit. The owner responded with, "Thank you for not wasting our time." I didn't respond, and refrained from lowering myself to his level.
My suggestion to prospective applicants is to not work for this company unless you have an appetite for constant doubt and 24/7 micromanagement. The owner shared how the company has gone through some rough marketing agency contracts and hires. To date, I see on LinkedIn the past marketing employee was there for 8 months, and the current marketing employee has been there for 5 months. That is a clear indicator that a company does not know what they want. Another red flag is the company tried to post this job confidentially because they are trying to find a replacement for their current marketing employee without them knowing, however, it is visible on Indeed and is not confidential. My advice to prospective applicants is, if they can do it to someone else, they can do it to you, too. I also know someone who applied for this job before me and was more qualified, however, they didn't get any response from the employer; which was odd to me. Lastly, I asked if this role was a one man band or if they had conversations about building a team. The owner shared that this was a one person role, with some potential for outsourcing. This is a dangerous business decision in today's marketing environment, especially since this role would be marketing for 3 businesses. His competitors will take advantage of the marketing applicant's burnout and out perform his businesses. Don't walk, just run away. There are far better small-mid companies with better business practices than this company. I'd give 0 stars if I could.
