The brief:
I was getting out of my entrepreneurial journey and started looking for opportunities. Stertlite power made me an offer along with a joining date due to which I refused other offers and my wife quit her job to be with me with another city. Post making an offer, they asked me to go through 2 more rounds of interviews over a period of 3 weeks and finally said No!
The details:
Sterlite Power via HR representative contacted me around 2nd week of April and scheduled an interaction with the BU CEO on 19th April. I was told by him that I should consider joining Sterlite, working in CEO's office and leading digital transformation initiatives. I agreed to the same.
Simultaneously, I got an offer from another reputed firm as Head of Digital Transformation in Mumbai with joining date on 2nd May. I informed the BU CEO and HR about the same. They will make an offer before 2nd May. Post this I was asked to do a behavioral analysis interview for around 2 hours followed by 2 reference checks.
After couple of days, I was told by HR that they are hiring a CIO and I should consider a position which would report to the CIO and not CEO. I agreed to the same.
The BU HR Head and HR hiring head got back to me on 2nd May and made me an offer. Post a bit of negotiation, I agreed to join the firm from 14th May. They told me that they would send an email with documents in 1/2 days as they need to complete a formality of getting the Group CEO / Company owner's approval on email. They also confirmed me via whatsapp that they will release the official offer letter. I took their word for granted
I informed the other firm about my decision not to join them. As we needed to move to Delhi, my wife agreed to quit her job as a school teacher and handed her resignation. We even visited our religious places in Nashik, Shirdi, Mumbai and took blessings for my new role. I also informed our friends and relatives about our move to Gurgaon / Delhi.
I was told on 7th May that the Group CEO wants to have an interview with me. HR told me that this will be a very generic discussion and she will send a formal offer after this interview. I was very surprised that after an organization has made a commitment, they would want to conduct a further interview. In good faith, I assured her that they are free to take any decision post the interview, irrespective of whatever has been verbally agreed.
The interview was scheduled on 10th May, but got rescheduled to 18th May. I had my interaction for over an hour with the Group CEO / owner of the company. Post the interaction, he told me that this is the final interview and HR will get back to me very soon.
However as a shocker, I was contacted by HR and asked to do a HR interview with their chief people officer on 24th May. I was once again told that this is a mere formality and they would release the offer letter after this.
I was later told that they can no longer offer me a role and that the Group CEO / owner was in the loop all throughout and he has taken this decision.
They changed their decision not because any other candidate was found to be more suitable or because they found any issues with my references or candidature. They did it because they didn't place any values on their commitment and were opportunistic to treat someone who couldn't do anything legally, without any consideration for any values or ethics.
I was shocked beyond words. The company placed no values on their commitment and I doubt if they run an organization based on any values.
