Apparently Interview Kid

[Rell Jette]

Wecan't resist passing along the phenomenon that is Noah Ritter, a young man who's taking the Internet by storm. The 5-year-old's interview at Pennsylvania's Wayne County Fair is a wonder of stream-of-consciousness, sprinkled heavily with one word: "apparently."

Cutting a striking figure with his red hair and a green-and-white shirt, Noah quickly takes the microphone from WNEP TV 16's Sofia Ojeda to deliver a monologue that's only briefly interrupted by the reporter's questions.

The interview went really well. I knew walking out of it that I had nailed it. The interviewer seemed genuinely impressed, asked me a lot of questions even after he finished the ones he had prepared, and tried to sell me on the company, and we really clicked personality-wise. The interview was supposed to last an hour, but it was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Afterwards, he walked me around the office and introduced me to several people. We even discussed a potential start date in mid-April.

I explained I has asked the manager what the start date was, and he said it was flexible, and then we discussed a possible start date next month. Then I asked him when he expected to make a decision, and he said it would be next (this) week. I was surprised, since they had just posted the job, so I confirmed he would be making a hiring decision next week. How do you hire someone for a nonexistent job?!

The recruiter checked with the manager and called me back, stating there is no position at this time and that the hiring manager thought he made that clear. I am quite positive he did not say anything of the sort. She told me he did really like me and wants to get me in the door some way, so that is why they want me to interview for the other position.

I had that happen with a headhunter, lured me into an interview under false pretenses. The interviewing manager wondered why I was there, because I was vastly overqualified. But we talked about the position.

Alison, thanks so much for replying to my letter. I have been thinking about what happened, and I wanted to provide some more information. I think the company I interviewed with are trying to draw in talent with a bait and switch. The company I work for recently restructured, and a lot of senior claim handlers either lost their jobs or are now stuck with no promotional opportunities. We are leaving in droves. The other insurers in the area know this and are trying to snatch us up. Most of us make too much money to consider the lower paying position they offered me.

During my hiatus of a few months in 1990, I had ALL of these happen to me. Plus a couple of interviews where I was being interviewed not for the job, but to provide some type of perverse amusement for managers.

Or you arrive for your 1pm appointment to find a huge room full of people who were also scheduled to come in at that time. Only to find out that the accounting position advertised was them trying to get you to sell MLM shit.

I see this happen all the time in government contracts. Companies need to know they can fill positions quickly if they get the contract. They do not want people to know the job does not exist or is contingent on a government contract.

My friend accepted a job and had a start date. She quit her old job and moved. Now her position is on permanent hold because a company who lost the contract is protesting. This puts the entire thing in limbo.

Anyway, the false pretense for interviewing plus the ridiculous amount of sensitive personal information that they asked for (that you might have a legitimate need for if and when you are actually hiring) set off all kinds of alarm bells in my head. Or are extensive profiles and background checks really that common before they even consider making you an offer?

This seems like an ideal time to leave a review on Glassdoor, so that anyone who is considering this phantom job in the future has at least some chance of being warned off. I understand if the OP feels like that would be perilously close to burning a bridge, though.

Believe me, I have been considering it, but I am worried it would come back to bite me. There are enough details in my letter that individuals familiar with the process of interviewing with this company will likely recognize. I hope that is enough to discourage anyone from wasting their time.

Anonymous, yes, but when there are less than a half dozen interview reviews for this company in my city scattered over several years, my post would stand out. I guarantee if the hiring manager read it, he would know I was the one who left it. And if he did, I worry about how that might affect me (even in ways that are currently unforeseen).

i think you are right to worry. you never know what could happen in your current job (you mentioned a recent restructuring in another comment) that could leave you and others in a position where the opportunity presented by the company you interviewed with looked appealing.

Thank you. I am almost convinced. If I do post on Glassdoor, I think I will need to be very careful and just stick to what happened, and possibly change a few non-important identifying details. It really is a cumbersome application process, and I would hate for anyone else to go through this.

She genuinely seemed clueless and apologetic about the whole situation, but maybe she was just a convincing actress. After all, I thought the hiring manager was genuinely interested in me as a candidate, and now I realize I gave him more ammunition by providing some details about what is happening at my current company. That part is particularly infuriating.

Based on the time investment, using vacation time, and the job being job re-posted, I would be *pissed* and leave negative reviews everywhere I could find, even if it meant burning bridges. That is seriously ridiculous.

But the reposting is just odd. Although I think some people here have mentioned that some companies automatically pay to have their postings refreshed every X days as part of the online job board, to get their postings back up to the top, so maybe that is what happened here?

Something like this happened to me at a government job many years ago. They talked to me for over an hour before saying they sure wished they were hiring. Sorry OP seriously sucks to waste that amount of time on nothing.

The hiring manager basically said even though they have not considered an external candidate for this position in several years, the job requires more experience than most of the current employees have. He said there is not an available position right now, but he anticipates they will have a need for someone in the future, so he is creating a pool of potential candidates. If he finds someone he really likes, he will pass their information on to another manager over the position I mentioned earlier.

Bait and switch. A sure sign is having another position quickly available for less; especially when the schedule for filling the position you were applying for seems to be between hell freezing over and the end of days.

I had the same thing happen to me at a company I work for. The Director offers me a job that, by the way, he had already offered to someone else. He gets let go and the Sr. Director acts like she knows nothing about it. This is not true because I know for a fact that the Director sent her an email about it. My Manager was also in the room and included on the email. Just an FYI that this is a hospital.

Just saying, because it makes me think of a job I applied for a few years ago. Long-term unemployed, desperate for work, willing to do anything to pay the bills, so I applied for a factory line job at a small-business confectionary. They called me up first to say that, based on my work history, I was overqualified for the position, but they were about to advertise for a newly opened PA/copywriting position and would I like to interview for it?

Oh my goodness. I am in such a similar situation currently. I applied for an entry-level job in January. I received a call back late February asking if I would like to come in for an interview and I accepted. I have since had two additional interviews, including one with the managing director of the company.

Before she leaves, I thought the best way to send her off was with an exit interview. These questions all came from my paid subscribers (one of the many benefits of being a paid subscriber is you help shape the content), but I snuck in a few that I was curious about too.

We did a partnership a few years ago where followers shared the ways in which pregnancy changed their body that no one prepared them for. The answers ranged from gray hairs to full on prolapse. I had the pleasure of reading through the hundreds of very descriptive comments to pick the best responses for a blog post. It took a VERY LONG TIME to recover from that one.

One of my favorite things about working with Ilana is that we are both equally into (read: obsessed with) following everything going on in the world of pop and internet culture. We both love to analyze tv shows and social media drama wayyyy past the extent to which the average person loses interest.

I also feel the need to mention that we spent a good chunk of my first year here brainstorming and writing scripts for a fictional web series about an aging mom influencer and all the absurd stuff that goes on behind the scenes. We never did anything with it, but Ilana and I laughed so hard writing it. I still believe that show would be a hit.

Good luck, Allie!!! I think I speak for everyone reading when I say, we wish you so much success in your new job and continued fulfillment in wherever that takes you next. I also want to add that you have been an incredible asset to the Mommy Shorts brand, both professionally and personally. Thank you for keeping me on task, for being my most trusted person to bounce ideas, for being fully committed to getting everything done right, for sharing my enthusiasm for a well executed project, for being a fantastic travel partner, for helping me navigate some truly tricky social media waters over the last few years, for helping me grow and evolve as the social media landscape changed, and for being just a wonderful presence around my kids and in my home. I will miss you so much. Have fun in Denver!

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