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Gave Notice Too Soon
I've done something really stupid and just want to vent I guess.
Some BG: I work for a family-owned small business and everyone is really close. The owners are like my aunts and treat me very well, but I just decided I needed to make more of a career move. So I applied all over the place, eventually getting an interview as an apartment leasing consultant. Great pay, big company, lots of room for growth: awesome. They put me through three weeks of interviews, only to eventually tell me I don't have enough experience so they can't hire me. Fine, whatever.
Fast forward a few weeks later: a manager with the same company asks me in to interview for a different property. Yay! So I take that morning off of work, then the next week spend the morning traveling to corporate to meet the regional manager. The catch is that if I waited to give notice at my job, I wouldn't have been able to give the full two weeks, which I didn't feel right about. One may think that they had me specifically in mind for this position, right? Why ask me to interview again otherwise? So I gave tentative notice at my current job, just so they had a heads up. They turn around and hire someone within a day as my replacement when I leave.
The kicker is that I inquired about the position today, and I'm STILL not a good fit so I didn't get the job. WTF? I get wanting someone with experience, that's fine. But why on earth call me in to interview again? That's just sadistic. So now I have about 3 weeks to find a job or I'm unemployed. I suppose that's what I get for trying to do the right thing and not screw over my current employers...
Re: Gave Notice Too Soon
There's no more rhyme or reason to the interviewing process. It used to be that when you were called in for an interview, you already were seriously being considered for the job and you could tell by the content of the interview whether or not you stood a good chance of getting the job.
Now they want many interviews -- a 2nd, a third or more! --- for a non managerial position. I have no idea what they are looking for. OR what they think they might find, in 4 interviews or 3, or 2.
You also cannot tell by the content of the interview anymore -- these things are like auditions for a show: everybody gets the same reaction whether or not the interviewers are interested in the candidate. (they pepper the interview with "That's great!" "you're exactly what we want...you'd be perfect for this job" and more.) It makes no sense.
You hit the nail on the head: "That's just sadistic."
The moral to the story:
Unless you have an actual offer --- and ideally, the offer in an offer letter --- do not give notice.
See if your company will take you back. It's worth a try. GL.
I'm sorry you're in this position and frustrated. Some HR people are complete jerks and mislead applicants. Not all do.
However, I think you made a lot of mistakes during this process that you can try to fix now, and hopefully won't repeat next time. You work for a small company where you consider your bosses like family. They care about you! They want you to succeed and move forward in your career. Your first stop should have been to them to talk about this. They might have had networking help to give, or advice, or flex time to interview. Any mentor worth having cares about your future and is willing to lose you so you can move on to something helpful to your future. Period.
Go talk to them now. Tell them you screwed up and ask if there's anything they can do now. Either with your old job, another one in the company, or help finding another.