Last week a telephonic interview was scheduled by one of the Big 4 consulting companies through their recruitment consultant with me.At the scheduled time I waited for the call and waited and waited!! for the whole 1 hour!! but no one called, no one was even bothered to e-mail me, text me, call me and inform that interview will not take place. Surprising even my recruitment consultant didn't know until I told him after 1 hour that the person who was supposed to call me didn't call.On the basis of this unprofessional behaviour of that BIG4 I have now asked the recruitment consultant to withdraw my application.Does anyone faced this situation before, how did you react? Until now I haven't received an apology from that BIG 4 company or from my recruitment consultant. This interview was for a top band manager level position (M3 Equivalent of Accenture).Regards

I had to wait for interviewers for 15-30 minutes a couple of times. Interviews were in person not by telephone. I also find it extremely annoying and unprofessional

I once had a third and final interview at one of the firms most commonly discussed on this site - the interviewer turned up over an hour late. The interviewer gave no apology, explanation or acknowledgement that he was late. And the bloke that turned up wasn't a last minute substitute interviewer - it was the person I was meant to see. Shame on me for not taking that as a sign.

Name n shame.

"Telephonic interview" is that one of those new-fangled inventions that link people by wires?You waited an hour? Do you know any other top band manager level position types that would have waited more than 15mins?

I would like to contribute to this thread, but have to go and get the tyres on my car re-vulcanized. Please excuse me for a few moments (or maybe an hour).

It was an initiatve test.You failed.

Not sure it would have been an initiative test for the following reasons:1. very unorthodox interviewing method2. more likely that the interviewer was just overworked and couldn't keep to his schedule3. what would the 'correct' answer be in any event? to go and haul the interviewer out by his collar and tell him to get his act together? or to cancel the interview and go back home (in which case how are you gonna get the job?)

Er...I was joking.

those crazy accountants and their crazy humor! hehe

A guy I worked for in a bygone era used to deliberately keep interviewees waiting for 20 mins or so. Different Strokes..

Assuming most phone interviews are likely to be carried out by manager/senior manager or equivalent, it is possible that they were doing something project related that over-ran.If you get that upset over a missed call i don't think consulting is for you. Has it occured to you that the person doing the interview being at fault for not calling is not necessarily a reflection on the HR department or company as a whole?

@OP: I'm sure the Big4 firm in question are positively heartbroken that you didn't pursue this top band manager opportunity. FFS, get over yourself. It's not like you were actually waiting in the HQ lobby for over an hour. If this WERE an initiative test, you'd have failed spectacularly. A manager candidate should have phoned his recruiter up asking for a direct contact / email to the interviewer then politely telling him you were scheduled to interview. You sat at home sulking like a little girl.

some of you sounds like completely stupid. The one who says consulting is not for me " I have been working in consulting from last 5 years". another one who says if interviewer not calling me on scheduled time is not a reflection of company's HR " you moron company's HR is reponsible for hiring those jerks who doesn't even know what it means to keep up to the commitment or if one can't keep to the schedule then set the expectations of other parties that he/she can make it- a thumb rule in consulting!". Indeed it was a failure of HR who asked that interviewer to schedule an interview with me and then he didn't turn up!! It was not like he was late, read again he didn't turn up!!. Have you heard first impression is the last impression. So it applies here as well. I don't beleive that BIG4 can match the work ethics I have. ( I don't want to name and shame that BIG 4, my ethics doesn't allow me to do that).And I was given a slot of 1 hour, so why the hell I was supposed to call my recruiter after 15 mins. when I knew the interviewer can call any time during that 1 hour window.

Putting your woeful grammar and command of the english language to one side, if you think that the actions or lack thereof of a single person within a large organisation are definitively representative of every member of that organisation (or as you seem to extend your rant) to all of the Big4, then you are one of the biggest fools to have ever posted on here or a mediocre troll.Having said that, you didn't elaborate on what happened next - did you get an explanation? - did the recruitment consultant contact HR to find out what had happened? -did you get any form of apology?

Without a doubt you are one of those jerks I already mentioned in my earlier post. How hard do you think it would be for that BIG4 HR to come up with a convincing excuse when confronted? Anyone can make stories to cover up!!You looks so intrested to know what next, if you can't predict what would have happend next then you shouldn't be browsing this forum at all!! Obviously the BIG4 company's HR apologised. Many people like you would just take it as a chill pill so that you can be hired for that company no matter just on day 1 your work ethics would have got shattered by working for such unprofessonal company. The only thing I didn't do is writing an e-mail to the chairman of that BIG4 and tell this unprofessional incident, and why I didn't do it because of the professionalism of the recruitment company as I don't want to put them in trouble.People don't get paid for speaking and writing good english ( unless you are a CV/Story writer), they get paid for using their brains and how best they express themselves and influence clients. And a moron like you need to look at the brighter side, I am not a native english speaker however, I earn more than what you do and my hold on other 4 languages are as good as you may boast about your command over writing and speaking english.

With a thin skin like that anon - it might be better to look at careers other than consulting

how about a career in MOD? still there will be thousands of BIG4 thick skin consultants I would be dealing with....so it's better I stick to consulting.

With interpersonal skills like that and such an aggressive nagative attitude, it seems odd that you didn't cut it at Accenture.

haha, nice one, really made my day! am laughing out loud. hehe

THE ORACLE,Who do you think I currently work for ;-)

Hi anonNo surprise there ! Why would you want to leave, and have to deal with such inferiors in the Big4?;0)

I never said that BIG 4 consultants are inferior. I am one of them. All I said that the BIG 4 who was supposed to interview me acted unprofessionally.I am so surprised that you are so supportive of that BIG4 and that willing to take such incident for granted!!One of you said that one/few person's behaviour is not a reflection of the whole company then why did aurther anderson LLP vainshed. It was just a few people not the rest of 85000 employees who were at fault. How many people do you think would have been involved in enron scandal? Might be less than 50!! those less than 50 employees were more than enough to cause one of the biggest collaspe, of a high profile firm, which history has ever witnessed.I take professional commitments very seriously, hence, the reason worlds biggest companies being my clients wants me to leave my BIG4 company and join them! But I just love consulting :-)Why I want to leave my current employer, I don't like the face of my MD, does it help?

Have you ever come across the word "helioproctosis" before?

things happen. you need to take it on the chin and press on if you really want a job there.

@ Orig anon. What an absolute disaster of a man - leave alone Consultant.I am at a Big 4 and am dreading the moment someone like you would be on my team. Stop calling people names who are only trying to help. "Chill Pill"? Are you for real? 4 languages? Are you this appallingly poor in all of them?

I am laughing a lot at this thread. I would refuse to pay for any services delivered with the level of grammar displayed by the OP.But to try and add something constructive, if maybe a bit unsavoury...I have done a bit of interviewing for consulting firms (not Big 4), as I am sure have many others here. Unless I had nothing else at all to do that day (i.e. no ongoing projects), then the candidate interview was always bottom of my list of priorities. Because anything else that came up would have been for a specific case or specific client / partner, any of which might have directly impacted my career. And so was far more important than some candidate that could have been replaced with another two days later as requiredSo to the OP - virtually anything else that your interviewee may have been asked to do on the day of your interview would have been more important to him/her than was calling you.It's not a personal insult, nor a reflection on the professionalism of the company - most likely it was just a busy day and you were at the bottom of the list.I agree that this doesn't make it less annoying, but I really wouldn't spend much time waiting for an apology

Well, thanks D!Exactly. I don't know why deluded people like the orig anon believe that below par grammar (slip-shod sentence construction) will not impact their client's perception of their general Consulting ability. It does.I wouldn't pay £1 for any amount of your SAP/Oracle genius.

Becasue "the below par grammer" OP-ANON holds an MBA from LBS.

...wow. absolutely amazing! Where to start."People don't get paid for speaking and writing good english ( unless you are a CV/Story writer), they get paid for using their brains and how best they express themselves and influence clients." Nope, a large part of the consulting toolkit (including client facing interactions) requires a good grasp of language. You fail at that."And a moron like you need to look at the brighter side, I am not a native english speaker however, I earn more than what you do and my hold on other 4 languages are as good as you may boast about your command over writing and speaking english." While I bow to your superhuman ability to sense other people's salaries over the internet, you're still what the Americans call a grade-A douche. How can you boast about your other languages when you're so obviously awful in this one? Also, how can you quack on and on about ethics and professionalism and slag off people on an anonymous forum who were trying to help?Here's a "thumb rule" for you - if it looks like a d*ck, walks like a d*ck and quacks like a d*ck, then it's usually a d*ck. I can translate that into one of your other languages if you like.

oh ya someguy, I can see something burning! Swahili is my native language!! Now translate that!!

Someguy, love your response!"Becasue "the below par grammer" OP-ANON holds an MBA from LBS." Orig d**k anon/ANON OP, if you must quote me (armed with your LBS degree) do so accurately. Once again, it's grammar not grammer. Get this into your thick, cocky, obnoxious head.

AD, Someguy l am delighted to know that there are more d**kheads on this forum that I originally thought!!you lot made my day and week!! Keep up that spirit and go on wasting clients money!!

...than I thought! 'Than'! 'Than'! Not 'That', you idiot.

hahaha AD, you did spot that!! you deserve a chocolate!! yahoo!!Now next question, spot a grammmatical mistake in this sentece!!You will get a d*ckhead not a cholocate if you didn't respond.

Anon, you really should just sign off quietly.I actually feel embarassed for you when reading your comments as you seem to lack intelligence, grammar, humour and, most importantly, any insight into this fact.If I was affiliated with LBS I would be decidedly unhappy with you for mentioning the school

The level of discussion on this forum has reached new, pathetic lows....Tony, please do something about it: enforcing user sign-ups with individual logins is probably the best/only way to control/reduce the level of nonsense in this forum

Paul,Whilst you have nice suggestion but I am sure it will not work for Tony who has worked hard to establish this strong brand. Because this is an anonymous forum hence, we can get to know the true side of consulting and these great consultants around us.If you notice the first 11 posts of this thread were as sincere as it could have been until people like another anon, someguy, HR VP, AD, D started bullying and boasting about their excellence in English!!I don’t give a damn to a bunch of these morons who are browsing this forum only to bully other people. I initiated this discussion just to know how anyone else would have reacted in my situation and I did get mixed response as expected. However, there is a difference between a constructive response and bullying someone.I am not saying I am not at fault but who started it? I will definitely not follow the motto i.e. “I don’t care who started it but I will finish ;-)” here is my last post considering I have moved on from this situation already.I did withdraw my application with the original BIG 4 and I am now in 2nd round of interview with Deliotte.

deloitte ;-)I must correct this despite of I said the earlier post was my last post ;-) I must get this Job :-)

Christ, I do not want the likes of you working for my firm. Jog on son, jog on.

Green Dotter - I am not quite sure why I was brought into this but I can assure you that I had no intention of applying anyway.Carry on my children and please try to be good

I'm officially scared. This guy is in a 2nd round interview with the Firm I work for?Orig anon, I take all my criticism for your grammar, attitude, manners back, if you promise to retreat a million miles away from Deloitte London.

AD, does deloitte provides consulting to alians as well? millions miles away from deloitte london can only be somewhere in the universe where even NASA couldn't have managed to reach! and you still call yourself a green dotter!!

"does deloitte provides" = does deloitte provide"alians" = aliensLearn to spell: having to read posts that are content free is already annoying, the fact that they are full of spelling mistakes doesn't make it any better

Come on guys, can't you see this is a troll (albeit an amusing one).