The day after I applied for the position, I was called by someone at the company who did a brief phone screening. However, they hadn't emailed me to set up a time. It just so happened that I was able to answer their questions when they called. During the phone call, they confirmed the date and time of the interview and said they'd follow up with a confirmation email. They did send a follow up email, but my email account flagged it as possible phishing or a scam.
This in itself isn't a red flag, but the email indicated that I was required to respond with my confirmation even though I'd given verbal confirmation minutes earlier during the phone call. So I emailed them back again confirming that I would be there the next day for the interview.
Not even 24 hours later, while I was preparing for the interview, I missed a call (I was in the shower) from someone at the company who left a voicemail letting me know that if I had any questions to feel free to call her. There was also another email sent reminding me of the date and time. This can all be explained away as a bit weird and not a big deal, but the story goes on.
My travel time to make it to the interview was supposed to be about an hour, but I got stuck on the highway due to an accident and Google maps indicated that with the added wait time, I would be at least half an hour late to the interview. So, 45 min before it was scheduled, I called the person who had left the voicemail to explain the situation and see if they'd still see me if I was that late. There was no answer, which is partly expected because they're busy people. However, there was no personalized message - just the automated "The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave a message or try again later." This seemed very unprofessional to me.
In the end, no one called me back and I realized how late I would be, so I didn't attend the interview at all. A few minutes after the interview would have ended had I been in attendance, I received yet another email from them asking why I hadn't made it.
To my way of thinking, if this truly was a reputable company, the person who had been my primary contact would have at least checked her voicemail to see if I'd called and then that email would have been unnecessary. Really, they should have called me back before the interview was scheduled.
As a few bonus points:
1. Though I submitted my email on my resume and the online application, they still read it out to me to ensure it was correct.
2. They specified in the first email confirmation to dress professionally - isn't that assumed?
3. They specified that I had to bring a hard copy of my resume. I've never in my life brought a hard copy of my resume to an interview where they'd already seen my resume.
4. The job was advertised online as being based in Maple Ridge, but then they told me that it was actually based in Vancouver close to Grandview and Boundary.
All of these things on their own wouldn't mean much, but together, seem super sketchy to me. I've since done some research online and learned that Empire Promotions was formerly called Legacy Promotions. It is a multi level marketing scheme/ pyramid scheme - mostly minimum wage sales positions deployed across the Lower Mainland, but with fancier titles to attract new grads. I would avoid 100%.
