The job posting on a Croatian employment portal was flashy, seemed as if the employer was a top-notch company offering vast opportunities for their employees. The ad required a 1-minute personal presentational video in English, which I submitted together with my CV. When inviting me for the interview, the owner/CEO asked for a PowerPoint about me which I would present in English (again!), and which would include many personal photos from my life so far (although they were not obligatory, the more the better), which should have been a clear sign. During the interview, the owner stated that the Zurich office is only for accounting, invoicing and legal matters, while the sales and other teams are based in Croatia. They calmly said that last year, at the beginning of Covid crisis, they fired around 10 people (clarifying with poker face that “they were only juniors”) but that they later realized it was unnecessary, since the company did OK, and they are trying to re-build the sales team with new employees, not those they fired. However, they are not in a hurry, and want to get to know the potential employees in detail, even if it takes several more interview rounds. On top of that, they were not honest about the number of employees in general – they said that they have around 20 employees, while the 2019 number available in business analysis portals was 12. During the interview, the pair did most of the talking, and they were praising their company and how technically advanced they are. They also asked a lot of questions regarding my current employer. I declined further interviews and asked them to delete my data in accordance with GDPR.
