‘Normally I don’t cry on camera’: 21-year-old Aussie in tears over job offer act

A young Australian has been reduced to tears online after she landed her dream job – only to receive the worst news days later.

A young woman has been left in tears, after she finally got offered a marketing job – only to have the offer rescinded days later, revealing a grim trend.

Lorin Deveaux, 21, tearfully explained online that after a rigorous interview process, she was finally told she’d landed a job … but the good news was short-lived.

After not receiving her contract, the future employer eventually called her and rescinded the offer, claiming that the job was no longer needed.

Ms Deveaux was completely crushed, she’d been so excited about landing the role, and didn’t even know that could happen.

“Why would they waste my time?” she asked.

“I’ve told my friends, I’ve told my family. Thank goodness I didn’t tell my employers and thank goodness I waited for my contract.”

She was crushed by the experience of getting the job … only for her to be told she wasn’t needed. Picture: Instagram/ lorindevx

She’s just finished her degree and was excited to land her first big job. Picture: Instagram/ lorindevx

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The 21-year-old said she was relieved she hadn’t told her current employers like “most people do” because if she had, she wouldn’t even have that job.

“Normally, I don’t cry on camera, but I just want to warn people because I’ve never even heard of that happening before.

“So do be careful and make sure you don’t make any moves before you have everything down in writing,” she said.

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The Sydney local told news.com.au that she was devastated because the job interview process had been so rigorous and time-consuming, and she’d had to jump through so many hoops.

“The interview process was actually a five-step process which is why the outcome was so frustrating,” she said.

“I was initially in contact with a recruiter and had a 15-minute phone screening with her. After that, we had a video screening with similar questions, which was recorded and sent to the media agency.

“Following the video screening, I had a Zoom interview with two members of the team who I would have been working with directly, which lasted for about 40 minutes.”

After she had made it through that round, she was sent an aptitude test to complete online, which took me another 45 minutes.

“After that was successful, I had my final meeting with the CEO of the agency, which also lasted approximately an hour. The whole process took about 2 weeks and each step was quite lengthy,” she explained.

To even land the job it was a five-step process. Picture: Instagram/ lorindevx

She was so excited when she thought she had the job. Picture: Instagram/ lorindevx

Ms Deveaux had just completed her university degree, and when she got the call to say she’d been offered the job, she was thrilled.

“I was so excited and happy to be starting my career in media. I was told by the recruiter that I would be receiving my contract on Tuesday and luckily I decided to sign this before I let my current employer know of the situation,” she said.

“When I hadn’t received it I decided to follow up with a text message to the recruiter but had been told that the person who handles the contracts was unwell.

“Later that Wednesday afternoon I had a call from the recruiter, and she told me she was deeply apologetic but the company had a meeting and decided they would remove the position altogether and rescind their offer.”

The 21-year-old said the impression she got from the phone call was that the company hadn’t budgeted property and realised they didn’t have the funds to be able to make a new hire.

“They had mentioned in the phone call that if they had hired me they would have had to make me redundant in a few months’ time,” she said.

“Obviously it was very upsetting as I had been put through a lengthy process and dedicated so much of my personal time to completing the steps, just for them to rescind their offer.”

She’s been left really disappointed. Picture: iStock

The young worker said the whole job experience has been “hurtful” and “confusing”, and when she shared the disappointing experience online, other Aussies shared they’d experienced something similar.

“Just went through this myself, except at the last minute I was told I was not the ‘right fit’. It crushed me,” one wrote.

“This happens all the time. Chalk it up to experience and move on,” someone else claimed.

“I’ve seen it happen when a higher up boss decides they don’t have the budget for it anymore. It might not be the people on the panel’s fault,” another offered.

“Girl it is the job market. I can’t even land a marketing job,” one admitted.

Ms Deveaux said that after posting her experience online, she’s now even more “worried” about the state of the job market because it is clear she’s not alone in this experience.

“I have realised it is extremely competitive, and after reading the comments of other industry professionals, it seems that it will only get worse in the future,” she said.

The workplace expert said there's been a slight rise. Picture: Supplied

Marnie Brokenshire, co-founder of Uncapped Potential, which aims to help companies create better workplace cultures, told news.com.au that there has been a surge in job offers being rescinded.

“We are anecdotally aware of there being an uptick in the rescinding of job offers. The main trend seems to be related to certain sectors and economic context,” she said.

Ms Brokenshire stressed that this shouldn’t happen, but when it does it means the workplace has failed, not the potential employee.

“It is most commonly evidence of poor organisational workforce planning discipline, and it can also be related to poor recruitment practices whereby employers are doing additional due diligence post offers being made,” she said.

“In Australia, employers can legally withdraw a job offer under certain circumstances, especially if the offer is conditional and the employment contract hasn’t been signed.”

The workplace expert said that isn’t a good look and employers should be “conscious of their brand and reputations” before canning a job offer.

“This type of practice should only occur in very limited and unique circumstances,” she warned.

Originally published as ‘Normally I don’t cry on camera’: 21-year-old Aussie in tears over job offer act