Beware: NET-A-PORTER

[Jason Tang]

Morning.

I should prefix my response that I am currently an employee of NAP and have
been for over 4.5 years.

I'm sorry that your experience with NAP has been far from ideal. I haven't
personally been involved with the hiring over the US but I have forwarded
the details to the people involved so they can clarify situation.

Jason

On 9 December 2011 03:13, Rudolf Lippan <rlippan at remotelinux.com> wrote:

> Good morning, Perl Mongers,
>
> This is a followup to my post to the Perl jobs-discuss mailing list.
>  Terrence picked it up here:
> http://livingcosmos.posterous.com/beware-of-net-a-porter-perl-jobs and
> the original can be found here:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/jobs-discuss@perl.org/msg01469.html
>
>
> About six weeks ago, I was contacted by a recruiter and asked if I was
> interested in a team lead position in New Jersey, and so begins my story.
>
> I was wanting to get back into the community after a limiting contract,
> but this wasn't really the sort of splash I hoped to make.  I've never been
> moved to do something like this in the 10+ years I've been programming
> professionally.  I've experienced some less than honest recruiting
> techniques and companies that had no issue jerking people around, but I was
> made aware this morning that there were at least two other Perl programmers
> affected, including junior candidates that probably had more hanging on
> this than I did.
>
> I sent the following list of events to both NET-A-PORTER and the
> recruiting agency 7 Dec.  Earlier today (8 Dec.), the recruiter called me
> and confirmed this, point by point.  NET-A-PORTER has, as of yet, not
> replied.
>
> 1) That NET-A-PORTER was fully aware of the contract rate during the
> interview
>   process.
>
> 2) That NET-A-PORTER selected me to lead their US team and I was asked to
> wait
>   for final sign off.
>
> 3) That NET-A-PORTER was aware that I let another opportunity go based on
> my
>   understanding that my employment was pending a 'final signature'.
>
> 4) That as a condition of final sign off NET-A-PORTER asked that, at the
> end
>   of the 6 month contract period, I would be willing to accept $30K less
> than
>   the original budgeted salary with the proviso that the salary would be
> open
>   to renegotiation based on the market conditions at that time.
>  Furthermore
>   that I agreed to this.
>
> 5) That NET-A-PORTER decided to withdraw the position at this point and no
>   longer build out a US-based Perl development team. The reason given is
> that
>   it would cost 1/2 as much to build out a team in the UK.
>
> For a company that espouses their programming culture and community
> support, I can't understand how they could think this was even remotely
> acceptable.  If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me.
>  The recruiter gave permission to share contact information with any
> interested parties regarding this situation.
>
> I know I'm not in the UK but, short of trying for slashdot, I thought this
> was the most appropriate venue for informing those who should be most aware
> of their actions.
>
> -r
>