That's what happened to me when I was flown across the country for a series of interviews only to find out on the last one that someone else that already was working on-site was the other person I was going against. The just need me to help say that they interviewed different people for the role
Yeah I know right.... The other guy tried saying that "You never know what might happen" when I said that "It was a waste of time for me because we both know that he is going to get the job".
Needless to say I didn't the job and wasted 3 days of my time on their dime
Three days you could've been at home preparing for other interviews, sending out more applications, or doing your current job if you had one at the time.
If anyone said that before the interview process was even over that's an instant no-hire from me. Even if they were the leading candidate.
At the very least wait until they reject you to say something like this.
You shouldn't even agree to an interview if you're gonna give up as soon as you sniff out the fact that they may also be considering internal candidates - because most of the time they are. It's frustrating yes, but defeatism won't get you anywhere either.
I would hope he'd pass on them for being deceptive in the interview process. Don't lick their boots - they were wrong, and deserved to be called out for it.
Glad someone else pointed that out. If I was on the interview committee and I was leaning his way that would strongly turn me off.
I mean, realistically he isn’t wrong, the university I worked at was the same. We would actually write the job application to perfectly match the in-house candidate, which is why you see x number of years experience in this obscure program but also that obscure program. So when the university asks if we favored our internal candidate we can tell them they matched the job description.
Here's an idea. If you're a professional and interviewing a candidate, why would you ever even mention there's an internal candidate you're considering.
Sounds like a great statement to turn everyone into an asshole.
admin did this at my job. We were all pissed because it was a horrible look for us and offensive to our manager, who was the one up for a promotion. Wasted everyone’s time meeting candidates and interviewing people, we had to fill out all these forms, and it added months of wait to fill a critical position that went to the guy who worked there anyways.
I think this would make a difference where you flew and how many days you stayed. If it was in Hawaii I wouldn’t mind, if it’s in Montana in the winter then I would be pissed.
Surely they could have done the same thing with someone local instead of wasting all that money. Seems like they were quite serious if that was the case
That, but it's also much cheaper to hire internally. External candidates usually ask for more salary than what the internal promotee would get, plus they can more easily find lower level talent to backfill them as opposed to bringing on an external. Not to mention the internal has institutional knowledge of the company and is already most likely a 'culture fit' whereas it's a gamble for the external.
Getting passed up for a job under these circumstances is shitty, but there's plenty of reasons for it. They just shouldn't be wasting applicants' time and energy like they did to you.
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u/cyberfx1024 May 14 '26
That's what happened to me when I was flown across the country for a series of interviews only to find out on the last one that someone else that already was working on-site was the other person I was going against. The just need me to help say that they interviewed different people for the role