Contacted in mid-April by the recruiter, reviewing collection industry software project manager / product manager / manager role requirements and my unique qualifications (20+ years experience in the collection industry, as owner and software developer, then 15+ years software development, and finally 15+ years product management experience). The recruiter was very excited about my qualifications, saying he had not found anyone so qualified for the role.
Still, it took several weeks for the recruiter to schedule a first interview, with no updates from the recruiter, until requested. First bad sign.
2 weeks later, a first interview was finally scheduled with a senior manager and a project manager. That interview was cancelled at the last moment, with no notice from the recruiter, by the employer due to a fire drill, and rescheduled for the next day. The interview went well enough, with a request from the project manager to answer questions about my A.I. work (extensive) in writing after the interview, which I did.
Again, no response from the recruiter for several weeks until a request for an update obtained a "no feedback yet" reply. 2nd bad sign.
After 4 weeks, an interview was scheduled with a top-level executive, to whom the recruiter thought (but wasn't certain) the role would report. The recruiter warned me that the executive was very busy and that I needed to get right to the point and keep the interview short.
The executive was a few minutes late to the interview and apologized. He then provided a very detailed basic overview of the "collection industry" for several minutes, to which I politely listened. When he was finished, I asked him if he knew that I had several decades "collection industry" experience. He said he did not. I asked him if he had spoken with the people who previously interviewed me. He said he had not. He told me to expect a call back in a few days. The call never came.
The executive's lack of knowledge about me and my domain + product value was the 3rd and BIGGEST bad sign.
I realized that I wasn't the person for this role . . . because it required a FULL understanding and communication of what was needed by key managers and my ability to deliver on those needs. That essential success component obviously wasn't present. After several examples of poor or non-existent communication and lack of response (and respect for an applicant), I contacted the recruiter and removed myself from further consideration.
Several days later, the recruiter said that he still had not heard from the executive, nearly two weeks after the last interview. But, he said that the executive "do not like you on this role" (exact quote). I asked the recruiter how he knew what the executive felt since he had not received a feedback reply from the executive. The recruiter did not respond, yet again.
Think long and hard about wasting time interviewing with this company . . . and even longer about accepting an offer.
