Have You Experienced Bait and Switch Job Applications?

Aerith-Waifu on 14/04/2023 - 15:04
Last edited 14/04/2023 - 15:06

I just did!

Went through the entire 3 stage interview with recruitment, state manager and then regional management. Same role was offered but the location is 90 mins from my house instead of 15 mins from my house. They agreed to the initial hours and days and place was given the all ok before went to the interview, today I was told that yes we will take you onboard but we would like you to work in another location 90 mins from my house!

Said no thank you very much!

The thing I am not happy about is they wasted almost 4 hours of my time on 3 seperate interviews only to be told to work in a totally different location to what I initially applied.

Basically instead of spending 30min return trip now I need to spend 3 hours return.

WTF! Anyone experienced anything similar???

Poll Options

  • 18
    1: Yes and I still took the job
  • 322
    2: No they can stick up their…….
  • 93
    3: Popcorn
Education & Work

Comments

      • mandelbrot on 16/04/2023 - 23:27
        +1

        He was actually pretty good about it, and eventually enjoyed KL over Singapore. He did ask the boss at the time: you could have at least told me before I got here!

  • Bid Sniper on 15/04/2023 - 13:13
    +2

    That sucks, Guess going forward need to have it all in writing.

    Google reviews warning anyone else.

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:28
      +1

      I might do one under a fake name

  • psdillon on 15/04/2023 - 13:39
    +4

    Name and shame so that we know to avoid.

  • tessel on 15/04/2023 - 14:14
    +5

    I'm seeing it for some government jobs. They advertise as anywhere in X state, meaning you don't have to be the capital city. Turns out that's not the case. You've got to work at whatever location which is not local for most people. They are doing it because they are desperate for suitable applicants and just hope that whoever applies and gets through the screening process just says (profanity) it and accepts the position even though it's not local etc.

    • GandalfTheCheap on 16/04/2023 - 22:09
      +1

      they are desperate for suitable applicants

      Tragic. More organisations falling victim to the "skills shortage" the corporate media keeps telling us about.

      If only there were some way to get qualified people to apply.

      I know what you're going to say: "can't they just increase the salary enough so qualified people apply…?"

      My friend it's not that simple. You see, the top 0.1% would be giving some of their excess money to people who can actually notice it.

      Imagine if all the progress of the last 2 decades was lost, and wages went all the way up, as much as everything else has!?

      So you see, nothing whatsoever can be done.

  • tonka on 15/04/2023 - 15:21

    Not unusual for a large employer to offer you an alternative vacancy if they don't want you for the first. But also almost every job ad has some level of bait and switch. Then there are agencies that just advertise and interview fake jobs to build their candidate stock.

  • whatgift on 15/04/2023 - 17:08
    +1

    I don't believe this is a bait and switch at all - I suspect someone who ranked higher than you wanted the same location and rightly got offered it. They still considered you a good candidate so offered you another location, which you could choose to reject. Neither you or the employer lose anything by making the offer.

  • tonka on 15/04/2023 - 17:37

    Btw, you know it's the incumbent of the job you got offered, that got the job you applied for.

  • Kiro on 15/04/2023 - 17:48
    +1

    Yes I was in this situation. I told the company that I was interested in the advertised position but wanted something else for me and I just left mid interview

    • Korban Dallas on 15/04/2023 - 23:07
      +1

      I got flip flopped once.

      Interview for said position 1
      Offered another role, better than 1. Got me really excited.
      His boss said no, offer position 1

      Gave me a terrible starting salary, when I said I am currently on double that they came to the party.
      Declined the offer, never heard of them again.

  • bcarp on 15/04/2023 - 19:46
    +7

    Not necessarily bait & switch. Like another poster said, this could just be a situation of you failed to come out as top candidate for the position you applied for. They could have told you goodbye, but decided to offer you an alternative instead in case you wanted it over nothing at all. You have to realise that they spent as much time interviewing you as you did attending the interviews, so it's not likely they would have gone through all of that without thinking they could form a mutual working relationship with you.

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:27

      I am the top candidate, they also ready started reference check. But at the same time they asked me to work in the 90mins by public transport store. They are playing games for sure!

      • [Deactivated] on 17/04/2023 - 08:22
        -3

        You’re clearly the top candidate. That’s why you didn’t get the local job!

        They’ll tell you that to feed your ego and get you in the headspace. Doesn’t matter who you spoke to. The fact you’re even complaining in a forum shows you wanted this gig more than they wanted you

  • Southoz on 15/04/2023 - 19:51
    -1

    Only when I applied for a job at BCF

    • Antikythera on 16/04/2023 - 01:05
      +1

      and the offer was for a role at Middy's ?

  • flyingcactus on 15/04/2023 - 22:53

    Yes I was in same boat recently. Went through interview process, was offered and accepted job. Several weeks later after I'd resigned from previous job and turned down another offer, I was told there was a stuff up on their end and the salary will be reduced by 22k. Ended up accepting new offer since it was still decent but was rather fed up by the situation.

    • Korban Dallas on 15/04/2023 - 23:00

      Not a great start. Hope it works out for you.

  • Korban Dallas on 15/04/2023 - 22:55

    It's a good job market out there. But getting high quality personnel is difficult.

    Been head hunted a few times lately. Go for the interview. Sometimes the final interview, these have been a big step up and not really qualified for. Get declined. 6 months later, still cannot fulfil the role and have multiple recruiters involved.

    I think one who has entered the au market just wanted free advice. I was wondering why the interview went for 1.5 hours.

    I've seen jobs open, taking 12 months to fill and when they finally settled for someone, they were not that great.

    Another job was actually for a manager position but only listed as senior. Clearly it was a management position. They just didn't want to pay a managers salary.

  • Alexxx on 16/04/2023 - 10:00

    Same thing happened to me a few years ago but I managed to negotiate only working at that location for 3 months (that ended up being 4), getting a work car so didn't need to pay for fuel as well as being paid for some of my commute.
    Took the job and it worked out really well.

  • mousie on 16/04/2023 - 10:47

    Unfortunately there is a lot of time wasted with job seeking for aspects that are unrelated to the role that you are applying for.

    They obviously like you, don't want to hire you for that role and want to keep you engaged. But it's not a match this time.

    Many organisations do this. They waste your time, have multiple roles, or in some cases no roles to eek out information. Great jobs go for mates.

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:25

      I have now blacklisted them and their parent company

  • morebunnings on 16/04/2023 - 11:13
    +1

    12 years ago I applied for an IT job in the Sunshine Coast advertised at 60k.

    After 2 interviews I got the job and went in to sign the contract and was told it was ~$18.50/hr + super, and if I sold a $2k/month service agreement to businesses I'd get a $200 reoccurring bonus.

    Keep in mind the job was for IT work, not sales, in a workshop where you never talked to business owners or management. They'd always drop equipment off.

    Left after 3 weeks. Talked to the manager (a really nice guy) when I was leaving. He was only on $37k/year and no one had ever sold a service plan, the boss completely lied on the posting. The boss had bought the business to fund his visa and was slowly running it into the ground with all his new cost saving measures. 6 months later they closed down.

  • Funky Kong on 16/04/2023 - 14:03

    Applied for a supervisor role with a large Australian transport distribution firm, they called me about the first position, would arrange an interview, then called back advising me I was unlikely to succeed but had a different position they thought was more suitable. Said they'd call back to arrange an interview but never did. Then they messaged me shortly afterwards about similar positions, I replied I was interested as I was still looking, no response.

    In fact being ghosted was a pretty common experience from the time I walked out of previous managers job until I landed the FIFO I job I start this coming week.

    I applied for a managers role with a large transport provider, was advised at the interview by the recruiting manager that they were going on away for 3 weeks and wouldn't make a decision until they returned. In the meantime I was offered a casual driving role, despite them having virtually no hours available. Three weeks passed, no response on the managers job, called HR and number wasn't connecting, and got ghosted by the recruiter.

    The company that offered me the FIFO job declined me for an driver role 1 week beforehand, couldn't believe they then contacted me about a managers role before eventually offering my the 2IC gig, probably just blowing smoke up my butt.

    Another firm were pretty good, kept me in the loop although even they took an extra week above what they originally said to make a firm decision. Had the impression I was their second option which is what seemingly unfolded.

    Best of luck, while it's supposedly a good job market it's also true real wages are on the decline, so you need to shop around, and don't believe anything unless it's in writing as a lot of companies are prepared to bait and switch or pull other crap to get someone in at below their worth.

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:25
      +1

      No harm done, already received a phone call on Saturday on a job I applied on Friday. Doing my interview on Tuesday.

      I think I might just dodged a bullet

  • conza on 16/04/2023 - 14:10

    Here's my best guess as to what happened. Giving the benefit of the doubt, if they were fair dinkum, it's possible they had multiple candidates for the initial role, and while in the interview process, a similar role in the 2nd location, was made vacant, and you came 2nd and still wanted to hire you, so offered you the 2nd location, on the off chance it suited you.

    Or, there was an internal shift, and someone else who already worked there, wanted the vacant position/location, so the company gave that to them, and then they said 'well now the job is in X not Y place, do you want that?' and you said no, which is completely fair.

    Alternative to those scenarios is, they lied the entire time, which, why would they do that? That'd be as much a risk of wasting their time as yours, and trust me, unless it's a very small company, their time is probably more valuable (I am meaning, it would've cost them much much more than the interview time, and much much more than a single person).

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:24

      I am thinking they promoted internally

  • leeweesquee on 16/04/2023 - 15:27

    Graduated from uni as a social worker. Applied for a job as a "client advisor". They wanted me to use my own car, own petrol, no base of operations and essentially sign people up for the services. Said (profanity) that. Their office closed down months later.

  • hasher22 on 16/04/2023 - 17:02

    Yup

    A B2B service role where, based on my experience and what they offered in the job ad which was B2B but when I accepted the job offer, I questioned why the contract didn't state B2B, the manager and HR said it's B2B. At the end of the 1 week training, they put me serving non-business customers without telling me, and apparently was the worst department in the business to work in. Spoke to my manager and she said I was best suited to deal with those customers, I quit after 1 week.

  • Nirmitha on 16/04/2023 - 18:00
    +1

    Please use Glassdoor and Seek.com.au to leave a review for crappy employers & HR like this. I'm the internet age, they shouldn't be getting away with this bs. You'll be helping others. Cheers

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:46

      Just tried seek, I need to be worked for them in order to leave a review

  • AXiS on 16/04/2023 - 18:41
    +2

    I've gotten reverse bait and switched before, sort of?

    Applied for a mid-level position, got a call from the head of that department that given my experience would it be ok if they interviewed me for the senior version of that position at about 25k more?

    Obviously I said yes and got it, and they also hired someone at the original mid level. I honestly would have accepted the mid-level role so they could have saved money, but it was great they bumped me up (with my permission).

    You can tell a lot about work culture from the recruitment process, and I've ended up somewhere with a great work culture (at least in my area of a very large corp) and great people.

    • youknow on 16/04/2023 - 21:10

      That's awesome! Definitely the sign of a good employer!

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:23

      Lucky you!

  • T1OOO on 16/04/2023 - 18:58
    +1

    Could juts be going thought the motions for sponsoring someone “we could t find anyone. We eeven made an offer ect. ..”

  • iguana on 16/04/2023 - 20:30
    +1

    90 minute commute in Perth? That's unheard of, unless you live in Joondalup or Rockingham?

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:23

      Instead of an easy drive for 15 mins, I need to leave the house at 7:30 in order to be at work by 9am by public transport. Also need to arrive 10 mins early to have a group team meeting (this 10 mins is unpaid) Pretty sure this arrive 10 mins early requirement but unpaid is also not legal?

  • youknow on 16/04/2023 - 21:07

    I've had this happen twice. Once was an external recruiter, who clearly mislead me about the role. Won't go in to a lot of details, other than they were just trying to get a commission, and didn't care about me or the employer. I turned down the offer.
    Another time was an external recruiter, and my salary expectations were stated very clearly up front, both to the recruiter and the hiring manager. I had 3 rounds of interviews up to the CIO (of a large organisation). They then offer me 10% less than the bottom of the range that I'd asked for (clearly from the beginning). I rejected it and said they'd need to come up to the bottom of my asking range. They said that they couldn't offer that much, as they had a number of other people at the same job code, and it wouldn't be fair to them to offer me more than them (ie. if they found out, they would be peeved!). I rejected the offer. It annoyed me, because I'd be transparent from the beginning and they knew what I was expecting, so if they couldn't offer that much, they should not have continued with the process.
    In both instances, I ended up with way better opportunities within a month or so. If you're already happily employed, never take less than what you think you are worth, or settle for lower than you should. If they are going to screw you at the beginning, they will definitely screw you once you are there!

    • Aerith-Waifu on 17/04/2023 - 06:33

      I think they will screw me on the commission structure rather than the salary. No harm done. Doing my new interview with another company on Tuesday.

      Like many said. Now is indeed a job seekers market. And I have plenty experience in sales to prove that. Their lose not mine!

  • Dack Smith on 17/04/2023 - 11:05
    -3

    Not surprised, HR is as useful as a stinky turd.

    Name and shame, if not then OP is clearly a liar

  • Brick Tamland on 17/04/2023 - 11:30

    Back in the day when I was looking for grad jobs there was a particular advertisement that promised the world including lots of travel which was pretty exciting for a young fella. I was suspicious when I got accepted for an interview quite quickly but it became evident it was a B2B callcentre job. I noped out of that interview quick smart

  • IPYF on 17/04/2023 - 12:37

    Not quite the same thing but years ago when still a student, I made a mistake once of taking a job that was 'up to' 37.5 hours a week in the contract that turned out to be like one shift a fortnight on rotating rosters. The job was advertised as full time, and everyone in the interview stream had basically said that the job was full time. As it turned out the job 'could' be full time if you were rostered on full time. This was reserved for people who were 'more experienced' and designated, informally, as team supervisors (same contract, same rate, but different rostering privileges).

    Of course, because the contract said 'up to 37.5 hours a week' I had no leg to stand on - and that's fair enough - and I've since taken that as a lesson to pay more attention to such wording.

  • Tekz on 17/04/2023 - 13:03

    Ive been given the bait and switch. Except their switch was more benefitial to me as it was much closer to home than the advertised location, so i took it.

  • mavis30551 on 17/04/2023 - 13:53
    +1

    Should of accepted and not shown up.
    They waste your time you waste theirs.

    • youknow on 17/04/2023 - 22:09

      Oh, I love it!

  • PurchaseAnxiety on 17/04/2023 - 14:24

    Once applied for a public service role. Wrote the application and got an interview, and took time out of my working day to attend the interview. When I get there, they tell me that they're recruiting for a merit list, and suddenly I wasn't applying for a job, but instead applying for the possibility of being offered an unknown job at some point over the next 12 months. This annoyed me, and I asked some fairly probing questions during the 'Any questions for us?' phase of the interview. It become fairly obvious they had no flipping clue what they were doing from the top down, even by govt department standards. I would have rejected any job offers, but I never heard an outcome either way, which I think further proved my presumption.

  • Logical on 17/04/2023 - 15:28
    -3

    I went for job interview for position listed as $120K. I aced the interview and received the offer only to be told there was a typo and it should have said $210K. Yeah right I said, I am not falling for this bait and switch, I don't want extra responsibility and pressure that goes with that salary so I declined the offer. A week later I scored a job paying $100K! Winner! Ka-ching!

  • BartholemewH on 17/04/2023 - 15:57
    -1

    Speaking of insane recruitment practices, a family member had a group zoom interview with 13 other candidates (multiple roles) the other day. One person didn't know how zoom works and swore at their teenager in the background…. Is this what going for a job in the city has come down to, or is this a one off?

  • navegante88 on 17/04/2023 - 18:58
    -1

    I once had a bait and switch on salary! By the time I figured it out it was already too late. FK that company.

  • TightLikeThisx on 17/04/2023 - 19:12

    Next time act enthusiastic take the job then just ring up sick every day. Then complain to HR about not being paid.

  • jatbinks on 17/04/2023 - 19:14
    -1

    Send them an invoice of 4 hours.

  • ErlichBachman on 18/04/2023 - 10:19
    +1

    years ago i was quite depressed and stuck in a role with no direction

    eventually i found a role which sounded really great, good benefits, better pay, seemingly decent culture, went in and they offered me the job after 1 interview - felt it was a red flag there and then but was that desperate to get out i didnt listen to my gut

    took weeks to get my written offer which again was a red flag but i ignored it as i was so unhappy in the place i was in at the time and wanted a fresh start

    eventually got my written offer, all good and as expected, resigned from my job and gave my 4 weeks notice at that point

    3 days before i was due to start (having already resigned from my job and finished up a week earlier by giving myself a week between roles) i get a phonecall from the hr person saying they had closed the sydney office and now everything was being run out of queensland, could i move up to queensland.

    my stress and anger (and self restraint) was probably the highest its ever been in my life. as i had no other immediate option for income and bills / rent to pay i had no choice but to go with it, they told me they would fly me up to queensland for training and i could then work from home back in sydney. i fly up to queensland a few days later and they have me in this crappy apartment but atleast reasonably close to the beach for a 2 week period. i get up there and the managers are like 'youre the guy moving up here from sydney' and noone knew anything about me working from home. biggest sh*t show of my life.

    anyway, i ended up doing the training for the first week while clocking out at 5pm each day and just going to the beach before and after work etc, and just goingback to the resort and immediately continuing to apply for other jobs back home

    week 2 starts and they tell me they need me there for antoher 3 weeks but they are going to put me in a spare room at one of the managers places to save money on accommodation. i knew if that happened i would have actually ended up doing something that would have ended up badly for everyone and myself in jail probably, and it wasnt worth it. ended up going to a doctor, getting a medical certificate for the rest of the week, enjoying the beach and applying for jobs before on the final day demanding my pay and reimbursement for cost, and as soon as that was paid and in my account unleashing on them and telling them to get (profanity) and ive never experienced anything like that in my life

    ended up flying home and driving for uber for a couple of months just to keep money coming in while i applied for other jobs and after about 2 months landed back on my feet and now am earning more $$ and in a much better situation than i ever was.

    lesson learnt was always listen to your gut and dont ignore red flags or make emotional decisions

    business ended up going under a few months later with heaps of people not getting paid

  • ErlichBachman on 18/04/2023 - 10:21

    i also recently went through a 7 stage interview process for a tech startup here in sydney, and got knocked back at the final stage with the feedback being given that they wnated someone with more startup experience —- something that could have been figured out by my resume alone letalone interviews 1-6, which included me doing a case study and everything

    ultimately it comes down to some businesses/ people are just (profanity) and sometimes you just have to be at peace for dodging a dodgy employer

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