Amy Strutt

Review of Palmer Group

I'm another candidate that had a poor experience w...

I'm another candidate that had a poor experience with Palmer Group.

I was looking to relocate to DSM from out of state and found a job I thought I might be a fit for on Palmer Group's website (this was a Palmer Group employee position, not a third party job). After submitting my resume, an agent called me to set up an in person interview (not a single screening question was asked during this conversation). I mentioned that I was currently living out of state and was told that they could not do phone interviews for this position. I was very interested, so I booked a trip to DSM to interview.

Upon arriving at the Palmer Group office, I was told that the woman I was supposed to be interviewing with was busy and that someone else would chat with me. I then spoke with a recruiter, and she did the standard screening questions. It was a wait before the hiring manager came to meet with me. It appeared that she had debriefed with the recruiter before coming in to see me, because all she said is "You don't have the specific experience we're looking for, but we'll keep your resume on file." I tried to go into my spiel about how my other experience is relevant, and she went on to tell me about how they need the specific experience and there's no way around it. I expressed that it was a shame that this wasn't established prior to my coming in for the interview (and traveling 1000+ miles!), and she said "sometimes a candidate has experience that isn't reflected on a resume, so we wanted to chat with you about your qualifications." I was left dumbfounded: the screening couldn't have happened over the phone?!

Unfortunately, Palmer Group wasted my time and money (spent on travel costs) and left a very sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps I'm at fault for pursuing the opportunity without having more specific conversations first, of course, but I went on to find a job through another local staffing firm that took the time to get to know me and valued me as a person and a candidate.