I feel like I'm getting led on by a potential employer

[Mosaud1998]

I have been looking for a job for about 5 months now (I've been looking since I got transferred to my current company). I applied for a District Sales Manager position with General Motors in July~. I got interviewed twice but the result was GM not hiring me. It was a contract-to-hire position. 6-month contract and after the 6 months, you get permanently hired. GM gave a current employee on the "contract-to-hire" position the extension and ended up dropping the ball on me. They did however mention that I was 2nd in line. Whatever the hell that meant

Anyways, the two gentlemen who had interviewed me at the time added me on Linked In. In December, I messaged the Buick Reginila Marketing Manager (one of the people who interviewed me back in July of 2023) to see if they had another opening. Lo and behold, he told me they did and I applied.

Dec 13th, I had a short over-the-phone interview with the HR from GM. Probably a 20-minute phone call. Describing the job etc. HR did mention they are looking to hire someone by March 2024. Jan 11th, I had an hour-long Zoom interview with the Buick Regional Marketing Manager and someone else. The interview in my opinion went well. A day after the interview, I sent both of the gentlemen an email thanking them for their time. I heard back from the interviewers thanking me for taking the time to have him interview me.

I received an email from HR on Jan 26th stating, "Hello! Hope this reaches you well. Thank you for spending time to interview with our team for the District Manager position. I had originally communicated that we would have final decisions by the end of this week, unfortunately, our timeline has been extended into next week due to scheduling. If you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out. I appreciate your patience, we are hoping we will have final decisions soon."

Feb 2nd, I was hoping to hear back on a decision. Here's the email I received from HR on Feb 2nd, "Thank you so much for your patience throughout the process for the District Manager Position. I am reaching out today to update you that we will not have official decisions this week. Your application is still active and in process but we do not have clarity at this time. As soon as I have updates I will be reaching out with information on the timeline and feedback. We appreciate your patience with our changing timeline. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out."

If I get the same bs email this week, I think I am going to lose it . I am currently applying for other positions as well.

[CTinline-six]

Originally Posted by Mosaud1998

I am currently applying for other positions as well.

That's the best thing you can do. Applying to jobs is a lot like dating, bad communication and playing games are big red flags. The minute someone starts jerking you around during the process just move on and find something else, because it is usually a sign of what the environment is like while working there.

With that said, HR seems to be clueless in most organizations these days, so you kind of have to expect a little bit of BS when applying to positions. I remember applying to a few positions and never hearing anything back, even after making it through a few rounds of interviews.

[Alfisti]

It's so hard to tell. HR is one f the all time most useless positions in a business and they tend to get in the way a bit so who knows what they are thinking where it matters? Keep applying elsewhere but don't shut any doors IMHO.

[Mosaud1998]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

It's so hard to tell. HR is one f the all time most useless positions in a business and they tend to get in the way a bit so who knows what they are thinking where it matters? Keep applying elsewhere but don't shut any doors IMHO.

I haven't shut the door. I kind of want to email the gentlemen who replied to my thank you email after the interview. But, not sure if that would be a good idea or not.

[DETRoadster]

Keep applying to other companies and roles.

These guys at GM like you enough to keep your application "warm" but not enough to commit. It means they are either pursuing other candidates that they like better, hoping someone better than you comes along, or are so internally dysfunctional that they cant make a decision.

If you want to call their bluff and see where you really stand, reach out and tell them that you are interviewing at several places and while their position is your #1 choice, you are expecting offers from at least one of these other companies. In the interest of transparency you felt it was best to be up front and let them know that. Then you see how they react.

[Reborn_]

There are other things too, like waiting to see how Q4 turned out before hiring. Lots of BS comes along with hiring in a big company like that. Honestly, the fact that they are giving you update emails is pretty impressive, lol.

I am 3 months into my new job. Just last Friday, I received a rejection email to something I must have applied to ~6 months ago. Unreal. It's exactly like dating, as someone mentioned already.

[2000cs]

Read up on GM and the division. Big companies always have some top-down edict like hiring slowdowns, reshuffling etc. Start of the year, start of a new approach. Expect the same with raises and promotions if you get in. Probably just have to be patient with them and keep applying elsewhere.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by Mosaud1998

I haven't shut the door. I kind of want to email the gentlemen who replied to my thank you email after the interview. But, not sure if that would be a good idea or not.

Have you replied to HR with a thank you for keeping you updated on the process? If not, you should. But, that’s all I would do. Say thanks for keeping me in the loop and I look forward to hearing back soon. Personally, I would not mention other potential job opportunities you are pursuing. In all honesty I don’t think they care and it feels like you are pressuring them and, to me, it comes off as a little desperate. It is super easy for them to say no. Saying yes takes more effort.

[Mosaud1998]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Have you replied to HR with a thank you for keeping you updated on the process? If not, you should. But, that’s all I would do. Say thanks for keeping me in the loop and I look forward to hearing back soon. Personally, I would not mention other potential job opportunities you are pursuing. In all honesty I don’t think they care and it feels like you are pressuring them and, to me, it comes off as a little desperate. It is super easy for them to say no. Saying yes takes more effort.

Yeah, I replied to HR with a thank you email both times.

[Condorll]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Have you replied to HR with a thank you for keeping you updated on the process? If not, you should. But, that’s all I would do. Say thanks for keeping me in the loop and I look forward to hearing back soon. Personally, I would not mention other potential job opportunities you are pursuing. In all honesty I don’t think they care and it feels like you are pressuring them and, to me, it comes off as a little desperate. It is super easy for them to say no. Saying yes takes more effort.

This above is the best answer. You don't need to tell them about other potential opportunities as they know you are looking for a job. Also if you mention waiting on offers from other companies that will weaken your bargaining position if and when they do offer you a job: Oh, you are still available?

[vreihen16]

Is GM in the middle of another round of office layoffs, have a hiring freeze, etc? I can't keep track of all the big companies and their freezes/layoffs any more.....

[spazzyfry123]

As someone that does the hiring, I really dislike when someone tells me that they have other offers on the table. That puts me in a position that makes me feel like they are trying to pressure me into a decision to hire them. If you're marketable and a solid candidate, I would hope that you have other offers on the table! No need to tell me you're fishing.

[Redd]

OP it sounds like you're waiting for the GM role over others. Don't. Keep interviewing. If this role comes, it comes.

There's various reasons HR could be delaying a decision. 2024 economic outlook will be bad, for starters. Maybe they're just withholding the hiring. Maybe the hiring ticket hasn't really been approved yet but HR was interviewing candidates in preparation for the headcount to open.

Managers are busy people. I for one won't interview candidates just for fun because it takes time and telling various candidates the same thing and listening to different answers is tiring. If they took the time to talk to you then you have at least been shortlisted. But that doesn't mean it's a sure bet. So stop waiting and keep looking. You might find something even better.

[c1pher]

Always seems like people in sales are always jerking someone around.

Not exactly related but I was recruited to apply for a position through an internal recruiter, not external. I go through all these interviews and people from the company even extended LinkedIn connections. I’m thinking everything is going well, just waiting for the offer. Then nothing. I tried not to call, exercising patience. But finally after a little over a week I call the recruiter and she tells me they aren’t ready to hire just yet. I’m like wtf did you waste my time for? I didn’t say it exactly that way but I asked why they were interviewing when they were uncertain and she kind of intimated that they thought they wanted the person in California instead…..something that never even came up lol.

Had another interview with a large consulting firm. They had me do a bunch of writing. When they said they were still thinking about it, I realized they were just gathering information on what to look for in a candidate, not actually hire someone. So I essentially wrote job descriptions for future positions since the hiring manager had no clue what they needed.

People are a$$hoes.

[nerdogray]

Being kept updated on decisions is very rare in my opinion unless there is a genuine and strong interest in you. Definitely keep looking and keep your options open, but it sounds to me you're on the fringe of being offered the job. Things happen. I wouldn't assume they are willfully jerking you around, especially given they respect you enough to keep you updated. But internally, especially for GM, I'm betting there are a lot of moving parts that need to align first. I once interviewed for a role that didn't come to fruition until months later (large, global company). I had completely forgotten about it, but it just so happened I was unhappy in the one I took when I received that "hey, they've finally decided to move on this." I jumped for it and ended up a solid six years there.

It could be argued tacky, but you could always take a job and leave if GM extends an offer. You have to look out for your own best interests, especially when it comes to survival.

[shimmy23]

as someone who has hired a dozen people (engineers, project managers, analysts) for my teams i will tell you that if we want you, you will receive an offer that day. if you are truly that desired. if you are on the decision block and we have others to interview then you'll wait to hear from us until all candidates are interviewed. sometimes that can be a couple weeks or three depending on everyone's schedule

[Tommy-G]

My $.02, as a manager (also w/GM) I know I put out ads and interview people to fill a role and something in my world changes. I have my candidate that I am interested in and maybe sales figures change which then puts the open position on hold.

I think you did the right thing, just express how interested you are and that you hope to connect in the near future

Good luck

[Mosaud1998]

Originally Posted by Tommy-G

My $.02, as a manager (also w/GM) I know I put out ads and interview people to fill a role and something in my world changes. I have my candidate that I am interested in and maybe sales figures change which then puts the open position on hold.

I think you did the right thing, just express how interested you are and that you hope to connect in the near future

Good luck

I got the same email from the HR at GM as last week. So I am going to just assume GM is stroking my chain at this point