I talk extensively about valuing your time – pointing people in the right direction of who to connect to, who is worth grabbing a coffee with, and who really isn’t. This is an exercise in setting goals, boundaries and lines in not just our professional life, but our personal life as well.
Our story begins with a local small startup company who is looking to bring on new talent to take a hobby into a serious profitable business model. The money is there. The interest is there. The cornerstone people to launch the company are being sought after – Senior keyholders all the way down to aspiring students and interns. Speaking with one of the partners, he was excited to meet and bring me in as part of the team as we were on the same page for focus, business direction and growth.
Fast forward to our meeting, in which he set, emailed and confirmed, and after 20 mins of phone calls and voicemails reaching out – he did not show up for.
So, I left.
This potential boss, with high expectations of me, couldn’t bother to check his phone nor the time until it was far past the time that made it a “No call / no show.”
Let’s swap shoes for just a moment, would the circumstance be understandable in the same manner, as a job seeker, I was late to my interview? Or first day of work? No. It was a bad impression that time was not valuable and not taken seriously prior to even getting to speak in person, regardless of how good a conversation or opportunity is, was or could be – I refuse to wait for someone for no more than 15 minutes unless I know them very well.
What is the strangest thing that a candidate, intern or new employee has done the first day of work (that you can legally share)?