Two days later, I got a call from Manish from Axis HR. First thing I noticed about him was how serious he was. There was not an iota of friendliness in his voice. He didn't even ask me how I was doing. Now I may be spoilt by Ernst & Young, but since I am, I expect to work with a bunch of fun people in the future. I categorically cannot work with a bunch of boring people who don't get jokes.
Manish asked me if I had received a powerpoint presentation about Axis. I hadn't and when I told him this, he said in his same serious voice, "OK I'll ask someone to send it to you and I'll call you back in 5 minutes." These are the kind of uninterested people you meet at government offices! I know it just might be that he had a hard day at work, but boss, I was started to get pissed!
I received the email with the ppt and Manish called back promptly. "Did you get the ppt?", he asked. "I just got the email. I was going through the text of...." and before I could finish, he said "Okay I'll call you in 15 minutes then." Now I really didn't like this guy and to be very honest, I didn't wanna work in a company that had people like these. But I was wondering, "Do you want to do the interview now?" "Yes, we'll do it right away." said Manish. No, he didn't ask me what would be a good time for me or whether I was busy. Just because I was not working, he didn't think it was important to ask me. That was it.
As I hung up, I tried to think of what I wanted to say to him. The HR of a company always gives you an idea of how employees are treated. This gave me an awful picture. Didn't seem like people skills were necessary for HR to have. When he called back later, I told him I was looking for contract jobs before he could say anything. And when he said there were no such vacancies, I told him I wasn't interested. To hell with him.
And with the same angry serious tone that he started out, he said bye and hung up. He was never rude to me, I'll make that clear. But he was like a strict authoritarian, disciplinarian general telling me what I was supposed to do next. See mail. Read ppt. Interview now.
Fuck. When will companies learn? I'm not desperate to get a job with you. YOU need an employee. Respect your potential employees and we'll respect you back.
UPDATE (07 Aug): I received a stinker! Yes, a stinker! From Hari from the HR consultancy. I'm actually now confused if he's from Axis HR or a separate organization! Read on.
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On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Hari Babu - Axis HR wrote:
Hi Alpana,
Have you informed to me that you are looking for a contract/part time job.........If you mentioned to me then why I am going to process your profile to Axis........Plz be clear what you are looking/want exactly and plz don't waste any body time,energy and herebelow the comments have got from my client.
Best Regards,
Hari Babu.D
From: Tripathi, Manish M
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 5:37 PM
To: Dasgupta, Digvijay
Subject: RE: Resume of Alpana Mandal for IT audit Sr Consultant position
Hi Diggi
The candidate had informed the vendor that she was only looking at a contractual/ part-time engagement. So obviously she is an HR decline.
It’s surprising how could Hari not inform us about something as critical as this.
Thanks
Manish
To which I replied (of course)!
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| from | Alpana Mandal | |||
| to | Hari Babu - Axis HR | |||
| date | Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM | |||
| subject | Re: Axis risk consulting JD & presentation for your reference | |||
| mailed-by | gmail.com | |||
Hi Hari,
I don't know why Manish would say that. I categorically told him that I hadn't given you this piece of information since I had just been offered a contract job with my ex-company and found it more lucrative.
I would also ask you to refrain from sending me stinkers like the one below.
- Not once during my phone conversations with Manish was he friendly to me. Courteous, yes, but not friendly. I never got the feeling of being comfortable. Unfortunately, I cannot work in such an environment.
- When I asked if the interview was going to be taken "now", I was simply told yes. For some reason, my convenience of time was not asked. Not even considered.
I'm sorry, but I got a feeling that I will just not fit into such a company, given the totally different nature of my last company. This email from you just makes that feeling stronger.
Regards,
Alpana Mandal.
