Had a couple of interviews at companies recently that were set up by a recruiter via an overengineered HR system that did not include one useful detail that I’ve always thought was normal when you’re in a job: who will be attending this meeting? (other great data points would be: what is this meeting regarding and how long will it last…but whatevs)

Is this a deliberate tactic to keep us on our toes and see how we respond to different scenarios and audiences? Or just kind of ineptitude/lack of planning on the company’s part where they don’t actually know who will be around at the set time.

Recently:

Had a ‘final round’ with company 1… invite didn’t say who with and I didn’t feel like asking the useless recruiter as I assumed I’d seem ‘difficult’. A random guy I’d never heard of before joins the call, so we small talk for 6 or 7 minutes of a 30 minute call as I assume someone else would join…nope

The guy was a director less than 2 weeks into the job, likely still finding his feet as to his own job (and email)…clearly had barely scanned my business case (i should’ve screenshared and dragged him through it in hindsight…oops)

Company 2: Had a call and a 2nd interviewer attended, who I was not expecting. He proceeds to ask me about a company on my CV… once I’m out of the call and can look him up on linkedin I see that my former employer was his former client - for the agency that I was interviewing at… why not share that context when asking a question? so bizarre

F**K :D