I was initially contacted by a recruiter who gave me a brief telephone screening interview and was invited to interview with the Sales Manager. A week or so went by and the Sales Manager finally called me and wanted to set up an interview. Since I was located in another city, he had offered to interview me when he was in my city next week in person for a convention for Aramark. Once I had informed him that I was pregnant and was going to be induced but not until the day after the interview (just so he wasn't caught off guard at the interview), it appeared that he became uncomfortable with the idea of interviewing me and offered instead to interview when I was in St. Louis for the Account Executive position located in Highland, Illinois. I called him later that day as I was set back by the idea that he was wiling to meet me and since suddenly he finds out that I am expecting soon that I was pushed off to the side. I asked if he would still consider interviewing me while he was here in Las Vegas. He agreed and asked me to contact him on Wednesday at 10am and to leave a message if he did not answer and that he would call me back to confirm a time on Thursday and that 2pm should work for him to interview me at the casino where the Aramark convention was being held.
I agreed, and did exactly what I had asked. I promptly awaited for 10am on Wednesday morning and left a message to follow up on the interview details and left my name and number, no response. Thursday comes around, I call and left another message to remind him of the interview that he had offered to set up with me, assuming that by now I should have heard from him.
I wanted to gave the Sales Manager the benefit of the doubt, so I got ready, had three copies of my resume with me, I was promptly there at the Mandalay Bay by 1:45pm awaiting for my phone to ring any second. 2:00pm goes by, still I wait. Finally, I decide to text him, since leaving voice mails on his cell was not effective.
Long story short, I finally resort to texting the Sales Manager on his cell informing him that I was at the Mandalay Bay for the interview as we had discussed and that I just wanted to follow up with him to know whether or not he was going to meet with me or if we should reschedule.
Granted, I am nine months pregnant, and I took the time and energy to get ready and do my part to meet him, I was quite disappointed from having zero effort on his part to follow up with me. A couple minutes after sending the text, apparently I had gotten his attention and he calls me to apologize and say that the time schedule had changed so he was unable to get back to me right away. Regardless, I still wanted to interview, so he told me he would meet me in ten minutes. Finally when he showed up, he had made the comment, "well you are persistent." I wanted to point out, "well, I find that to be a good thing and it sounds like I need to be persistent to get you to keep your promises." Imagine if I was a customer...
The rest of the interview was pretty standard. He was asking questions about my background and sales experience. The vibe that I was picking up though was that since I had informed him that I was pregnant that he was no longer interested, or as interested in considering me for the position.
From that point on I felt that he was just trying to blow me off and that me following up when he had asked me to was nothing more than an annoyance for him. I have to say that I have had no bad experiences dealing with Aramark as a company and have had only good things to say but my experience and way I feel that I had been treated was very disappointing.
At the end of the interview, he asked me to contact him to arrange another interview when I moved to St. Louis the following week and he could give me a tour of the facility and give me a better idea whether the job was right for me. I left believing in what he told me, only to receive a generic rejection letter a few days later. I was not only disappointed in the lack of professionalism and respect of the Sales Manager, but I did not appreciate having been lied to, I would have rather appreciated him to have stated that he will follow up with me in a few days than to have promised me another interview. Regardless, I hold no hard feelings toward Aramark, as I would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to work for this company, but I find it necessary to share my experience.