HR mocked her 'insignificant skills' during job interview. Weeks later, she returned as his client and turned the tables on him

A top-tier eligible candidate was mocked for their qualifications on HR's screening call. The recruiter, in fact, humiliated them by offering a junior-level role with a significant pay cut. However, karma struck back when the candidate secured another high-paying job and had the same recruiter flagged by his own company. The candidate (u/ok_pen4842 on Reddit) posted the story on April 9.

After leaving their previous job because of a toxic boss, the candidate applied for various openings on LinkedIn. Within weeks, they had a recruiter from a reputed firm reach out for a job. "I had applied for this job on LinkedIn and met 100% of the criteria, and when he reached out for a screening call, he attached my CV to the email, so naturally I assumed he had read it and thought I was a good fit," the candidate explained. But things took a turn for the worse on the screening call.

The recruiter went on to mock the candidate's qualifications, which is ironic because they had a very colorful CV with international experience ranging from junior to C-suite.

For almost 30 minutes, the recruiter went over with the candidate, explaining why they were not suitable for the role. He even called them incompetent for the job, pointing out mistakes in their resume. "[He] tells me to remove my experience with the one smaller company from my CV because 'no one will care what you did there; they are too small to matter,' and repeatedly mentions my lack of experience with one particular software (not related to the job I applied for; they didn’t use it)," the candidate recalled.

The next day, the recruiter contacted the candidate again and crushed their self-confidence by offering them a junior-level opportunity with a 60% pay cut. The applicant refused and continued with their job hunt.

A few weeks later, the candidate accepted another job opportunity with a 40% raise. And the same recruitment company contacted them to pitch their services as a third party. The candidate refused the service but also decided to let the company know their reason. "I ended my response by saying that I would not want any of our candidates to have the experience I did and would not want my organization to be represented in a callous and unprofessional manner," they shared. The email reached the higher management, and the recruiter who had mocked the candidate was fired by his own company.

Unfortunately, the hiring processes have become too disrespectful to the candidates. The experiences have been so awful that applicants are even dropping out of the recruitment process voluntarily. A JobScore report found that almost half (46%) of candidates will withdraw their job application because of the interviewer's attitude or behavior. Likewise, while 47% cited poor communication, 43% mentioned a questionable recruiter's attitude as a reason for leaving the recruitment process. 

Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit story, u/no-ship8658 commented, "Honestly, it is not surprising. Some recruiters only care when they need you. I’d be polite but cautious; don’t forget how they treated you before, and definitely don’t jump just because they came back." Similarly, u/gulliblecrazy488 wrote, "His mission was to break you down in hopes that you would accept the other job, which he probably had trouble fulfilling — you proved your worth and ended up better off. Perfect story."

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