I was contacted by a friendly-sounding Robert Half Technologies rep by the name of Paulo Wang, at the Pasadena CA office. (I live in the Los Angeles area.) He said that he had a couple of positions that I seemed well-suited for, and asked me to come in to interview and 30-minute skills test.
I showed up at the scheduled time, and the receptionist asked if I had registered online yet. I hadn't even known about it. She asked, "Well, do you have time now?". "OK, fine". She led me to a closet where three people were registering at company computers and told me it would take about THIRTY MINUTES
After pondering this for about 20 seconds, I phoned Mr. Wang on my cell. "Hi, I'm in your lobby. The receptionist is trying to have me do some 30 minute registration? What's that all about?" "Oh, its just how we get you in our system". Well I can't waste that kind of time. I don't even know if position is good. Can we discuss that first?" "OK, let me come out and see what we can do."
At that point, another person came in for an interview With Mr Wang. We obviously both had appointments at the same time. Mr Wang came out, talked to the receptionist for a minute, then tells me, "OK, I need to meet with this other person, why don't you take the skills test while you wait, and you can complete the registration later at home". I felt like walking at this point, but I'd driven 45 minutes to meet him. I agreed to take the test.
about 20 minutes later, I had finished the test and was in Mr Wang's office. To my surprise, he handed me a contact to sign. As I read it over, he explained that it was necessary that I sign the contact before he could discuss any positions with me, and that it was just a non-compete type agreement for the period in which I was employed by Robert Half. Obviously I had a confused look on my face, so he continued to explain the contract is only needed for contract-to-hire, not permanent positions. "Oh OK, I said. "I'd like to take some time to read this over. Lets stick to permanent positions for now". "Well, I don't actually have any permanent positions."
I left. As I drove home, I called the company and spoke to a manager. I made a complaint against the employee for treating me in a very unprofessional manner, and failing to notify me of the process their company uses before I arrived. Thats when I learned that they have an office that would have been 5 minutes away, which Mr Wang should have sent me to.
If Mr Wang had told me how HORRIBLY STUPID their process was, I would never have gone in. I suspect this is a huge motivator for their recruiters to deceive applicants, and to double book appointments. Do yourself a favor, and stay away from Robert Half Industries.