I applied to an HR Consultant position at EmpowerHR right as I was graduating college in 2013. After applying online I was contacted by their intern to set up an in-person interview in Milwaukee. I met with two consultants and the manager and I have never had such a hostile interview experience in my entire career. The interviewers were incredibly condescending and seemed annoyed by my lack of experience (the extent of which was clearly outlined on my resume…). In hindsight, I probably should have never applied for the position. At the time, I had lived an hour away from Milwaukee, and a phone screen would have saved time if I was the disastrous fit they made me feel like. After the interview, I never heard a word again from the company regarding the position. Even a standard “thanks, but no thanks” e-mail would have sufficed, but never happened. Ultimately, that’s what probably bothered me the most. Two years later (2015) I was contacted by one of their recruiters since my work experience lined up with one of their current positions, and I declined to engage based on my previous poor interview experience. The recruiter was kind, and seemed genuinely interested in what caused the bad impression in order to rectify for future candidates.

I spoke a couple of times with a recruiter in Michigan. The second time at length. This was for a position in Schaumburg, IL. He stated my background was exactly what they are looking for in their consultants. I then had a telephone interview with a person from the Schaumburg office. She stated that they were in the beginning of their interviewing process and it would be a couple of weeks before they began picking people to come in for interviews and that my contact moving forward would be with my original recruiter. I never heard from anyone so I e-mailed the recruiter. He never responded.