I was offered a job after phone interviews, a five hour in-person interview, and a written assignment. I resigned from my job to start at IXL, then IXL RESCINDED MY JOB OFFER less than a week before my start date completely out of the blue. This happened two days after I resigned from my former job and left me unemployed. I was set to start about two months after my interview and acceptance of the position so that I would have enough time to tie up loose ends at my old job. There was one week between my old job and the IXL job, and that is the time frame in which they told me my job offer was being rescinded. They notified me right before I was supposed to start, even though they knew I was resigning and had ample time to let me know further in advance. The two months I used to finish up my former job were filled with kind and welcoming emails from the head of the IXL team telling me how excited they were about my arrival. The emails included team bios, inquiries about the laptop I wanted, a training schedule, training documents, steps to follow before and on my first day, company newsletters, and the offer letter (which I signed and returned). I also received a welcome email from HR with links and information about the company and paperwork they would need on my first day. After two months of positive correspondence and anticipation of my start date, they notified me that the job was being rescinded via email and didn't even have the decency to call me. Good companies will help you find another job or do something to help you out if they must rescind offers, but IXL did absolutely nothing. They wouldn't return my calls or respond to my emails asking for more information. They wrote in the email that it was because of a change in their business plan, which is extremely vague and uninformative. It was extremely difficult to believe because I saw that the job I was supposed to be starting was re-posted the next day, so they were clearly not being honest with me about why the offer was rescinded.
There is nothing in my background that could have turned up and made them change their minds. I'm a pretty low key person who plays by the rules and has no secrets in the past, so there is no way this was because of a bad background check. In fact, they ran that right after my interview and it came back clean, so this was something on the company's end.This was incredibly unprofessional and unethical behavior on IXL's part.
I would strongly encourage anyone that accepts a job offer from this company to be sure you have something in writing stating that if an offer is rescinded that you will get some sort of compensation or that they will at the very least try to help you find another job. I am appalled at how they handled this situation.