Dansday
Recently, I had an incredibly frustrating encounter with a company HR department that completely lacked basic professional courtesy. They reached out to me with an opportunity and invited me to a scheduled interview. I take these things seriously, so I cleared my schedule and spent the entire day researching their tech stack, understanding their product, and preparing my thoughts. I wanted to make sure I could bring real value to the conversation and respect the time we had set aside.
But when the actual time for the meeting arrived, there was absolutely nothing. No calendar invite, no meeting link, no email saying they were running late, and not even a quick message to reschedule. I was just left waiting in the dark. It is incredibly stupid to demand someone time and preparation only to completely vanish when it is time to show up.
I do not tolerate that kind of unprofessionalism. If a company cannot even coordinate a basic introductory call, it speaks volumes about their internal culture, their management, and how they treat their actual engineering team. My response was simple and immediate. I blocked their contact completely and marked the entire company as a massive red flag in my notes. I am not going to chase down someone who cannot respect my schedule.
I did not waste another minute dwelling on it. In this industry, momentum is everything. I brushed it off and immediately went back to shipping my own code and searching for companies that actually operate like professionals. There is no time to sit around feeling sorry for yourself or waiting for people who do not value you. You just have to cut your losses, keep your standards high, and move forward.