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You apply for a role, and are given an interview. Happily you're invited back for a 2nd interview, they request a presentation, which you provide. Once again happily you are their preferred candidate, and are called to be offered the job on the day of the 2nd interview, which you accept. You are sent a conditional offer letter outlining basic information and a request for references, you confirm acceptance and provide references.
7 days later (to the day) the offer is withdrawn, they note that you haven't complied with the terms of conditional offer - to whit, one of the references has not been forwarded to them within a the 7 day period they requested. They refuse to discuss the matter further.
just me? or is that weird?
Maybe they were a rambler…
Postal strike?
I would go for convenient excuse after checking the budget/economic forecast.
Either that or a completely anal hr department which would be best avoiding anyway.
Did one of your Referees refuse to provide a reference and it was then inferred you were a wrong un?
Did you really wanna be Foreign Secretary anyway? 🙃
It's one of my colleagues. She's outgrowing the wee practice we have here, and has been wanting to spread her wings for a while now. I've encouraged her to apply for this role, and helped with her presentation (don't tell my bosses) and now this. One ref was from me, sent back the same day, she's contacted her previous employer who "forgot" and has promised to send it in the next couple of days.
This new place just not budging.
I mean, for my perspective I get to keep a pretty good member of the team, but she's crushed. Bit discourteous I think.
Either that or a completely anal hr department which would be best avoiding anyway.
My feeling also, narrow swerve. But a difficult sell right now
If they're so inflexible about a voluntary reference, she's dodged a bullet... Well out of it.
I'd be chalking that down as a lucky escape.
We've been on the other side of this. Offered a job (subject to reference & background check), then discovered the candidate had a ghost in the closet which meant they couldn't work for us - which they would have known if they had read the advert properly.
Rightly or wrongly, clients require us to stick to agreed procedures, if we don't, we won't have a business.
It wasn't a particularly nice conversation for anyone.
What cougar said…
Most likely the role was withdrawn for economic reason and rather than be honest they’ve found an excuse. Recruiting is a pain at the best of times and you don’t throw a potential new hire under the bus for such a trivial reason.
Half term last week so person meant to be supplying reference for you could well have been on holiday.
But yes, really odd.
Similar experience here last year. Was offered a contract with a military manuf and informed I'd have to go through security clearance etc. Not an issue, as I'd successfully completed the same process with the MOD 2 years prior. All was well until 3-4 weeks went by and progress wasn't being made. After week 5, the offer was retracted with no explanation given. Sh1t happens but I dislike being kept in the dark, so I asked someone to do some digging and it turned out one of my references (in the US) didn't respond to their request. That individual was literally the last person I thought would let me down. Lesson learned.
That's just stupid employment practice. You can't expect random strangers to complete entirely voluntary clerical tasks, unpaid, to your demand and schedule.
It was either a convenient excuse for a change of mind, or they are idiots. Good employees aren't easy to find (nor is the process free).
My guess is that they sent out offers to two people, knowing that they'd find something they could use as an excuse to drop the second preference if the favourite came good. Unfortunately that's what happened.
thecaptain
That’s just stupid employment practice. You can’t expect random strangers to complete entirely voluntary clerical tasks, unpaid, to your demand and schedule.
^^This entirely ^^
One ref was from me, sent back the same day, she’s contacted her previous employer who “forgot” and has promised to send it in the next couple of days.
This new place just not budging.
As others have said lucky escape?
They expect her to get some previous employer to do this to their beck and call... so totally outside her control.
At best its SMarT not achievable or realistic. What sort of KPI's are they going to give her in the job?
I've recently had a similar equally bizarre experience.
Tried to volunteer for a role at a charity organization.
Got encouraged by them to apply for a paid role they had.
One interview then an offer of the job a few days later.
Was expecting a second interview to discuss pay and holidays.
Said yes but we needed to agree to this first.
Pay agreed but they kept changing their minds about holidays.
Went in again to sign the contract and they emailed me half an hour before I was due in with another change and a vague promise of confirmation on holidays at a later date.
I went in and told them I'd sign it when it was in writing which they agreed to again.
Next day i got an email saying the job offer had been withdrawn with no reason given.
Really odd.
The thing that I found the strangest was that I'd have been willing to do a few days a week as a volunteer but after being treated like that then blanked by them that isn't going to happen.
References are pointless these days anyway. It's really rare to get a bad one in case the subject gets litigious about it, and if you get a good one it's probably because they're keen to get rid of them. My last few employers have had a policy of not doing anything except confirm that the subject worked for them between whatever dates.
My favourite reference story is from about 1990. My team leader was asked to give a reference for a guy who used to disappear every lunchtime for 2 hours, sometimes more, to go to his evangelical church. The reference stated 'Xxxxx worked religiously'...
References are such an out dated concept. Any organisation asking for them yet alone relying on them needs to a serious word with themselves.
Surprising how many job offers get pulled at the last minute when someone senior who hadn't been involved with the recruitment makes an arbitrary decision.
References are now most commonly a confirmation ‘that you worked at The Company from dates X to Y with no outstanding or disciplinary issues’. They rarely have to reflect character but are just statements of fact (essentially a HR record) to ensure you’re not a blagger.
Or at least this is what my latest employers told me.
It’s best to ask your ex-employers HR dept as to them it’s just part of the process / day-job and not a favour or even requiring knowledge of the person.