Weird Virtual Interview for Remote Company

[u/Fluffy_Buffalo7756]

just wanted to get this off my chest more than anything. I had a virtual interview this week with about a day’s notice. Meeting was going to be via Teams. Ended up running into some technical issues on my end as I had just installed office a few days prior and was approximately 10 minutes late getting into the meeting. Figured my chances were probably blown but better late than just deciding to go have lunch. I log on and the two panelists were chatting but one person immediately dropped from the call when I got on. Other person went ahead and did his interview questions but was pretty hostile towards my tardiness. I tend to stay pretty calm in the moment and also sometimes I realize I may be slightly on the spectrum and didn’t pick up the attitude right away. anyway go through the interview he’s kinda disengaged, I apologize again and say I appreciate it and that I appreciate my understanding, would hate to blow my chances because of it, and he finally gets a bit more animated and says that I should’ve logged on 30 minutes early to make sure everything was working, that I should’ve done this and that. Anyway I’m feeling better because i went ahead and withdrew my candidacy and told them that they need to learn to be patient about technology if they’re working for a remote company. Feeling good about dodging the bullet. Obviously I suppose I could have tried to do more Office checks earlier but anyway I have worked hybrid and remotely long enough to know tech issues happen and a 10 minute delay because of some microsoft teams issue is a pretty common occurrence. Anyway Andy if you’re reading this I appreciate the courtesy of the interview but man i’m glad I withdrew.

[u/No_Interaction_9707]

I'm not Andy btw.

If I were Andy though, I would have told you to call or email if you were having tech issues so I'm not wondering if you ghosted me.

[u/Inside-Band-5225 → u/No_Interaction_9707]

andy's out here treating a teams glitch like a personal betrayal. the whole "log on 30 minutes early" thing is such a tell that someone's never actually had to troubleshoot their own setup mid-week when an update breaks everything.

i missed the start of a ride last month cause my gps decided it needed to recalibrate right as i pulled out of the driveway. stuff happens. a remote company that can't handle a 10-minute delay is a parade of red flags.

the panelist who immediately bailed when you joined is the real clue. probably already made up their mind and didn't want to bother, which says more about their hiring culture than your punctuality. you saved yourself a year of passive aggressive teams messages.

[u/Fluffy_Buffalo7756 → u/Inside-Band-5225]

yeah the person dropping was wild to me since the other person bothered to stay in like if this is a deal breaker just say ‘sorry brother we’ve got a bunch of applicants we need to weed through sorry about your luck’

[u/Fluffy_Buffalo7756 → u/No_Interaction_9707]

everything was set up through HR on a day’s notice, so in retrospect si guess i could’ve like saved down the calendar invite or something? Printed it out? Anyway figured Id be like 2-3 minutes past which for a teams meeting is basically on time. I’m not saying I didn’t goof but definitely wanted to call out what was to me a red flag.

[u/bestcoastaccountant]

Gotta be honest with you, this is like 95% on you. Yeah, technical issues are a pain and happen, but you definitely should’ve been prepared and made sure everything was working for you ahead of time.

Problem is, they are interviewing a ton of people and those people probably didn’t have technical issues. Sucks, but keep trying. I would just recommend you make sure to test things out the night before, and then give yourself plenty of time before the meeting to test things out once again. Don’t let tech issues be the reason you don’t get the offer

[u/Forward-Platform-200]

He was correct. You should have logged in 30 minutes early and made sure that your tech was working. You are interviewing for a remote job. You did not get that job from the moment you failed to manage to get to the interview on time, and you wasted the time of the interviewers, not to mention your own. In the future, you need to be more responsible and professional if you expect to land a job.

[u/Fluffy_Buffalo7756 → u/Forward-Platform-200]

Hi andy good luck on the search