Some time back I applied at this really small company (less than 5 employees) for a tech job. It was in another city and the first interviews were remote. I don't have much work history and I have an odd history (took a few gap years after uni and went back to college) so I'm older than most entry level job seekers. And my resume is empty, I've only put my most recent education there. My first interview there was with an engineer. He asked me how old I was and I had to explain my history. Surprisingly the rest of the interview went well and he scheduled me for a second interview. Second interview was with him, another engineer and a HR-Management type person. The 2 engineers asked me some tech questions and my future career aspirations. My aspirations are a 100% match with the role in question. They both seem satisfied. Then the HR person starts talking and asks me how old I am. I again explained my history and then HR asked me why I didn't work after uni and who was paying for my rent and groceries. I said I was living with my family and they asked me what my family did for a living. HR ended the interview later with "thank you for your time. We will let you know the results in a week". I thought I blew my chances. So a week later I asked for an update, and they told me to send them references. I then asked my teachers and ex classmates for reference letters and they all wrote well written letters. I send the company the letters. They then tell me they will look into it next month. A month later, one of my references tells me that they contacted him. So he sets aside time from his schedule (in the middle of his workday) to do a phone call with them. A week later, I ask the company for an update and they say "We'll get back to you in a month". Next month, they call me and tell me they are in my city and want to meet. So we set up a meeting at a coffee shop. In the coffee shop, I meet HR person. They do some casual chit chat and tell me about the job - the annual income, probation period, etc. and tell me they will send me an offer letter next month. During that same meeting, they again ask me "what does your mother do?", "what does your father do?", etc. trying to find out about me as much as possible. I wait for a month, but I never get an offer letter. I thought there were delays so I decide to wait more time. After another month, I get worried. So I reached out to them for an update and they tell me "you never followed up after our meeting so I thought you were not interested". I then confirm I am interested and HR later pulls me into a video call. During the call HR says "why didn't you follow up? Because of that, I had to hire someone else" In that exact same call, they say "you know when I visited insert city name, I left a laptop for you in my friend's house. So when you start your job, that laptop will be delivered to you!" They then say "my project has been delayed so I cannot hire you now. Give me one or two months and I will let you know then". A month later, they send me a mail saying that their project has been rejected so they cannot hire me. Many months later on LinkedIn, I found out that they in fact had hired someone else at exactly the same time they told me the project got cancelled. So I'm guessing their "project delayed" story was just a lie to buy more time and find another candidate and use me as a backup. This HR person is literally the most evil human I've ever encountered in my life.
