This Redditor that goes by u/Wytch78, for instance, didn’t even get a chance to meet their potential recruiter! The thing is, the place was practically empty, and they could hear people talking from the offices – however, after 20 minutes of no-show, they decided to bail on the opportunity and tell the receptionist that they were no longer interested. 

An educator with 15 years of experience was set to attend a job interview

They arrive on time, check in with the secretary and begin waiting to be called in

“Educator with 15 years’ experience. Waited 20 minutes for an interview. Got up and left” – this internet user took to one of Reddit’s communities dedicated to work-related struggles to vent about the time they had to walk out of a job interview due to the recruiter’s tardiness. The post managed to garner over 23K upvotes as well as 1.2K comments discussing the matter. 

There are a gazillion and one reasons why one would need to get back into job hunting! To seek opportunities with higher salaries and better environments; because of things like layoffs, dissatisfaction, and limited prospects; or, as in today’s author’s case, due to commute issues and the desire to be closer to home. 

Whatever it is, it’s a well-known fact that staying in one place for a prolonged time is not always the best option.

Take a sneak peek at an article from one of the world’s largest employment websites, for instance: Indeed suggests that you should change jobs every 3-5 years to “show recruiters and hiring managers that you’re committed and can stay in a position for an extended period while also exploring other opportunities.”

Of course, everyone’s circumstances are different, and it’s more than possible to be incredibly loyal to your company and gain only the best from it – however, sadly, that’s not the usual scenario for most. 

So! When you finally realize that it’s time to walk away, you know that you’re about to encounter one of the biggest stressors there is – job interviews. They’re nerve-racking and sometimes even confidence-killing, yet the #1 thing that’s bound to crush your spirit the most is when you understand that your time is not valued. 

It’s vital to remember that employment is a mutual service that requires respect from both sides; thus, when you show up to a scheduled meeting, where you’re forced to wait for your tardy interviewer without any kind of heads-up – maybe it’s really best to walk away.

20 minutes go by and there is no sign of the representative, so they decide to act

To get a more professional outlook on this situation, Bored Panda decided to reach out to a couple of experts!

Our first expert is Lucy Seifert, and, to begin, we invited her to introduce herself: “I am a life coach, trainer and author offering a unique blend of life coaching to identify and attain your goals along with 1-2-1 training in my key areas of expertise, including assertiveness, confidence building, CVs and interview skills, public speaking, and time and stress management. I’m dedicated to helping people and encouraging and supporting clients to reach their best potential.”

We then pondered the red flags that people should watch out for during job interviews: “It’s important that as a candidate you feel welcome and that this is a place you’d like to work. An interview isn’t only about the organization seeing if they want to employ you; it’s about you assessing if you want to work with them. So, notice how you feel as you walk in. Some red flags to watch out for are: not being welcomed by the person at the front desk, being left on your own waiting without any information or any offer of a drink, not being told how long you’ll be waiting for, overhearing an argument or foul language, and noticing that staff don’t look very happy!”

Finally, we asked Lucy what to do if an interviewer is late, to which she replied: “After about 5-10 minutes, ask the person in reception how long before the interviewer will arrive. Always be very polite. If they don’t know, ask them to phone and find out. The difficulty in having a long wait is your energy could run low – so you might want to get up and walk around a bit or be sure you have something interesting with you to read, perhaps related to the job. If the company has its own reports or magazines in the waiting area, it’s worth reading them to show an interest. If it appears there’s going to be an extended wait, discuss at reception what to do. Perhaps there’s been some genuine emergency to explain it; however, if there’s no particular reason and you’re not given any information, this is a definite red flag. You may want to say that you’re not able to wait longer and will email them. It depends how important the job is to you. If you do email, be very polite, even if they are not.”

The candidate approaches the secretary, lets them know that they’re no longer interested, and leaves

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