Hello! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. I just wanted to share with you my feelings when it comes to what happened today-Wednesday, September 7th, 2022-that has really upset me to a point where I am seriously thinking about unsubscribing from their newsletter and ranting about the level of unprofessionalism I have experienced when I signed up for the Author Success Coach position at the self-publishing school.
In case you guys are wondering what the heck I am talking about, in my last post (which you can click here for more information), I talked about the Author Success Coach being my dream job because it was everything I was looking for when it came to coaching other authors on self-publishing. Not only am I a self-published author myself, I had the liberty of coaching two other clients who also sought my help when it comes to the self-publishing process for Author Accelerator Book Coaching course. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to really showcase my skills when it came to working as a a coach for their company.
After I applied for the position, I got an email yesterday that said the following:
Congrats, Dominique!
You’ve made it to the next phase of the hiring process for the Author Success Coach position at SPS!
In this next step, we’ll conduct 15-30 minute interviews with all qualified candidates.
If you could please click on the link to book a call for this interview that fits with your schedule.
Thank you,
Shiana
Talent Development
Of course when I got the email like this, I was super excited. Unfortunately, I was at work at the time and couldn’t respond to the email right away so I waited until I went on my lunch break to sign up. Once I clicked on the link, I was taken to a screen similar to this one:
There were a lot more time slots available when I signed up so I chose the 1:15 p.m. time slot at first. Shortly after that, I received the email that I was all booked up for the time. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my lunch break wasn’t until 1:30 PM which meant I wasn’t going to be able to make it for the 15 minute zoom call. So, I switched it to 8:00 AM central time (9am pacific time for their side) and waited.
Well, this morning I woke up with a cough and a sore throat so I decided to take the day off of work to recover. I had no intention of doing anything today…until I got this email from the talent manager at the self-publishing school:
Hi Dominique,
Regretfully, I am unable to change the time of our interview as I am fully booked this week. I will keep you in mind for the next opportunity.
Thank you for your interest!
Okay, it was fine for her to cancel the time slot for 9AM. I didn’t have a problem with that. My problem came in when she said that she would keep me in mind for the next opportunity…even though I still was signed up for the 1:15 PM slot. Apparently, She gave me the impression that she was kicking me off for good instead of asking me if I still wanted the 1:15 PM slot.
That was unfair.
So, I decided to send another email to her to clarify what she was stating in the email:
Hi!
Okay, so does that mean you are not going to consider me as a candidate for the position this go round because of the time change?
Dominique Gibson
I waited for her reply and this is what she sent me:
Yes ma’am – we had over 200 applicants and I was booked solid almost instantly. I am so sorry.
Mind you, she still didn’t check the roster to see if I was still booked for the 1:15PM time slot that I originally applied for when I signed up the first time. So with that in mind, I sent another email:
So, I guess I wasn’t even given the opportunity to get interviewed at all even though I signed up the same day I got the email?
I had originally had the appointment for 1:15 in the afternoon. If worst came to worst, I would have arranged to have the meeting done at that time but now you went from canceling me from the 9am slot to just not considering me for the position at all.
I accept your apology. I think that in the future, you should have a different calendar system where it deletes the booking time automatically once too many people sign up for that time.
Have a great day.
Dominique Gibson
Again, I was willing to let this go (After posting it here on my website). Now, this exchange back and forth happened between 11:30 and 12:00 PM central time (my time). I was more than willing to let this go until I just so happen to look up the link just to see if they were all booked up like she claimed.
And they wasn’t.
If you see in the screenshot above, the time slot for September 8th at 1:15 PM was still available…at 6:17 in the evening. What does that mean? She wasn’t going to consider the other candidates who had already signed up to choose a different slot if there wasn’t one available. On top of that, she didn’t even cancel the one I had initially signed up for like she did with me and the 9AM slot.
I am not upset about not being considered for the position itself. I am upset at the way the situation was handled. Obviously, if I were in charge of a position like this, my email would have went something like this.
Hi Dominique,
We are so happy that you have made it this far in the hiring process. Unfortunately, due to the massive number of applicants applying for the position, we have decided to hire other candidates for this position.
Thank you so much for this opportunity. We hope you will apply again in the future.
Best,
The self-publishing school
If I would have gotten an email like this, then I would be able to let it go and maybe apply again in the future. But now, I don’t know if I want to or not. I have even thought about sending an email on their website just to let them know how I felt about the situation. If it does happen, I will be sure to keep you guys posted.
See you soon.
Dominique Gibson
#selfpublishingschool #publishing #Coach #jobs
