A candidate seeking an internship recently took to social media to call out a startup founder’s allegedly shockingly unprofessional behaviour. After researching the business and feeling that "something felt off," the candidate decided to cancel their upcoming interview. The candidate claimed that though the founder initially acknowledged the message politely, he later changed his text reaction to a middle finger emoji.A screenshot of a communication between a candidate and a founder. (Screengrab (Reddit))“I applied for an internship through a LinkedIn post and got a reply from the founder the next day saying they liked my profile and wanted to schedule an interview. He asked me to continue the conversation on WhatsApp,” the candidate wrote, adding that though they applied, the process of application felt “strangely unstructured”.Also Read: Founder offers ₹5,000/month for full-time role, internet outraged: ‘Is he living in 1926?’They were only given an office address for the internship interview without any formal email or correspondence.“As I researched the company further, I started getting second thoughts. There were multiple businesses operating under the same family and office, very little information available online, and overall the whole thing just didn't inspire confidence. Maybe my instincts were wrong, but something felt off. So I decided not to attend the interview.”The candidate communicated with the startup’s founder and informed him that they would not be appearing for the interview. Initially, the founder reacted with a thumbs-up emoji. However, the candidate alleged that when they later opened the chat, “the reaction had been changed to [middle finger].”“I'm sorry, but if you're a founder representing your company and that's how you react to a candidate declining an interview, you've just validated every concern that candidate had in the first place. Honestly, I think that emoji told me more about the company culture than the interview ever could,” the candidate posted on Reddit. The person concluded the post with a screenshot of the alleged communication with the founder.What did social media say?An individual commented, “I love companies like this. I don't have to go to the trouble of second-guessing the workplace culture. They're automatically on my blacklist.” Another expressed, “You're not even an employee of that company, why are you not mentioning the name of the company? Do it!”A third posted, “I once got an offer from a place that I refused to go to at the last minute because I found a remote opportunity elsewhere. I expected the HR person to be disappointed, but the founder was also CC’d in the thread, and she went ballistic, lmao, saying that offer shopping is one of the worst things you can do as a professional, and she hoped that I would get the same treatment at some point. Like I am not defending myself, I know I did something sh**ty but I did not expect the whole thing to turn that ugly lol. If you, as a founder, feel so entitled to someone even before they have become your employee, one can only wonder what happens after you have joined. I still think I dodged a bullet there because every workplace I had joined before that was toxic af, my mental health was f***ed beyond recognition and I was seriously considering just —— myself. My new remote workplace, on the other hand, turned out to be the most supportive place I have worked at so far. My gut was looking after me.”Also Read: Why an AI startup by Indian founders has sparked global outrage after Y Combinator demoA fourth wrote, “I can only imagine the behaviour towards his slaves in the start-up, if he is mature enough to use such gestures on WhatsApp. Sadly, in India, these are dime a dozen.”(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. Hindustantimes.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)