Transamerica

This experience was probably the cruelest joke played on me by the American job market as of yet.

In April 2016, they advertised for a presentation designer located in their Baltimore office. I applied, had a flawless phone screening with their recruiter, and then another phone screening with the hiring manager who loved everything I showed her and asked if I can fly down and meet the team, which I did. They paid for my flight, but I incurred parking and taxi fees which I was willing to cover since I foolishly thought I'd be getting a job out of this (I mean, this must be a real job for them to be spending $$$ to fly me down, right? RIGHT?

The meeting went flawlessly, and the following week the recruiter called me to ask for my references “ASAP” and said that I should “expect an offer by the end of the week.” I thought to myself, wow, my long nightmare is finally over, I'll be escaping Stinkassachusetts and starting a new life for myself in a new city. I began hunting for an apartment online, and quit my ESL tutoring gig, as I told the recruiter I could start within a few weeks.

They checked my references, and I even sent a printout of my LinkedIn recommendations. And then I waited.

A week passed...and then another.

I never heard from them again. 

I eventually sent the CEO a letter about this experience, saying “if you treated your customers the way you treated me, you’d be out of business,” which prompted a call from someone in "talent acquisition" who apologized and confessed that after my references were checked “the team decided to move in a different direction and not fill the role.”

It continues to astonish me just how such horrible human beings came into existence, let alone got put in charge of hiring. (They did eventually reimburse me for the parking and taxi expenses I incurred.)