Overview: Imagine receiving a phone call saying MSN Microsoft is interested in hiring you, but first you must go through a 45 minute phone interview. Discover how your company’s vital data is in jeopardy.
A word of caution: Are recruiting and marketing analytics’ companies enabling the next wave of identity and corporate information theft?
As a founder and owner of ValorCrossMedia.com an Online Advertising and Marketing company with 15+ years of experience in the field I could not have been more weary when a man from Kenexa called me, allegedly to recruit me for a job in New York as a Search Marketing Analyst for Microsoft’s new MSN search engine.
The first time he called he said he was looking for someone to do work for Fortune 400 clients. I told him I was really busy and that I usually deal with smaller clients. He didn’t think that would be a problem … he was very insistent to talk to me. I suggested I’d call him back, so we left it up in the air for a few weeks and I forgot about him.
Then he called me a second time, telling me I was supposed to call him and set up an interview. He practically begged me to do a 45-minute phone interview to see if I was right for the “job.” He e-mailed me and sent me a very generic job description that was more like a classified newspaper ad than anything else.
Well, something smelled fishy about the whole thing, but if it was for real how could I turn down a chance to get some high-paying work from Microsoft, so I agreed to the interview and we set a date.
The phone interview was unlike any job interview I have ever had while working for Fortune 400 companies in the past.
The man never mentioned my resume, never asked about my work experience or salary requirements, had absolutely no interest in me as an individual or asked any of the usual questions a company asks when trying to size up a potential employee.
Instead he was interested in my clients, their budgets, my current involvement in search word optimization, how much time I spend on each client and was very interested in only the most negative experiences with clients, asking me to name them more than once (which I refused to do). This went on for about half an hour, with him finally asking me
“Can you give me some of the specifics of an optimal (website) life-cycle and what happens in that life cycle?”
I answered with “I can’t give you specifics without looking at my data.”
Then came the kicker …
“Do you have your data with you?”
“This guy seems to wants it all,” I thought. He wants to know nothing about my qualifications for this “job” but he doesn’t mind asking me l about my clients, my strategies and pretty much how a small, successful web design and online advertising and marketing company like ValorCrossMedia.com keeps its clients and now he wants to see my data?
I said “This information is confidential.”
At the end of the interview, and without asking a single question about my background, experience in a corporate environment, expectations, or any kind of question that was even remotely related to me, or that provided me with information about the job, the interviewer notified me: ”I don’t think I am getting the answers I need” then he added ”I don’t think I am getting the answers Microsoft wants”, and hung up the phone on me rather briskly..
After the interview I got very curios as to why Microsoft would not do their own hiring and I found out that they do at GotDotNet.ru Microsoft is actively recruiting for MSN in Russia according to their website, and if you are interested, please email your CV in English to russiacv@microsoft.com. MSN is also hunting for AdCenter Marketers at the Career page on MSN's web site with some jobs in New York, but mostly in Washington State. I have YET to find any listing of Microsoft engaging Kenexa to do their hiring for MSN in New York. I contacted Microsoft HR department with a question about their connection to Kenexa, but have yet to receive a reply.
Could the interview by Kenexa be nothing more than the company testing a new piece of software? It’s hard to tell, but it is pretty obvious that to test any software of this type, you need human subjects. What could be better than allegedly picking the brains of an independent freelancer to find out the “human factor” under the guise of a job interview? For a giant Human Resources company to allegedly use the experiences of a small company to fine-tune its software without compensation or foreknowledge is scary to say the least. If it really was a job interview and is the wave of the future, watch out when Kenexa contacts you … it could be Big Brother cashing in.
copyright 2005 Galina Arlov
For comments or questions about this article contact galina@ValorCrossMedia.com or visit
http://www.ValorCrossMedia.com
