Hiring Horror Story: Mumbai entrepreneur called ‘B***h’ by a candidate on WhatsApp, post online interview gone wrong

Senain Sawant, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur shared her experience of encountering a job applicant who verbally abused her during a WhatsApp chat after an unsuccessful online interview.

The founder of the start-up ‘Grump’, said she had been struggling to find the right candidates for her venture. She narrated the incident on LinkedIn, highlighting the challenges entrepreneurs and employers face while searching for suitable candidates.

Sawant had scheduled a Google Meet video interview with the candidate, who had applied for the role of a social media executive, on Monday, July 29. She explained that since the candidate’s resume did not provide enough information for immediate hire, she wanted to meet them to assess their potential as a social media executive or determine if they needed to be trained first as an intern.

“They joined the call with the camera off, said they don’t own a computer and something about the iOS update not allowing video calls,” wrote Sawant in her LinkedIn post.

When the entrepreneur asked how they usually worked, the candidate said they were given a laptop from their previous employer.

“I asked them to join at a time when their video can be turned on, since this is an interview and I need to see who I’m speaking with. They said ‘Fine’ and cut the call. Their tone was off from the start, they weren’t audible to begin with and it seemed like they were out in public from the amount of noise in the background,” Sawant added.

After the candidate disconnected the video call, Sawant had a WhatsApp chat with the candidate and shared screenshots of the chat in her LinkedIn post.

The entrepreneur pointed out that it was clearly mentioned in the invite that it would be a video interview and she never heard of an iOS update that did not allow video calls as the candidate claimed.

The candidate said they are “okay skipping this one (the role)”, adding that they had a year of work experience.

The candidate got defensive and said they applied for the role of social media executive and not an internship, to which Sawant replied, “your resume speaks otherwise, all the best”.

This is where it got nasty and the candidate replied, “With all due respect, don’t be a bi**h. The arrogance you speak with”.

Shocked by the unsolicited abuse, Ms. Sawant responded: “Excuse me?”

The candidate went further, telling the potential employer: “No one would want to speak to you.”

The Mumbai entrepreneur ended the conversation by saying, “Thank you for clarifying your level of experience and professionalism.”

The post soon caught the attention of Internet users and several users showed support towards the entrepreneur, Senain Sawant