My initial interview was just a basic screening call with a corporate recruiter. Since the job was posted on multiple career search website, I'm sure there was an enormous response from potential candidates so I completely understand this step in the process. I felt my qualifications (ie. experience) put me in a great position to breeze through this first part. My first 'real' interview was a phone interview a week later with the hiring manager. I could tell he was young and a little inexperienced when it came to interviewing, hiring, etc. His questions were good but not overly difficult to answer and he didn't follow up my answers with questions to dig deeper. I was prepared with questions of my own and he did answer those questions very well. This interview went well and after a few weeks I followed up with the hiring manager to politely see if they had any updates on the next step of the process. Fortunately after this follow up, I was called by the recruiter again and lined up for a second phone interview with a couple other Sr. Managers who would be peers, not supervisors. This interview also went well with approx. 80% of the time spent on me asking more questions and the two interviewers providing answers. I don't think this role reversal was their intention but it just worked out that way. I have mixed feelings on this step of the process. I did like hearing other perspectives on company culture, the hiring managers methods, positives, negatives, etc for working for DSG. I usually prefer the in-person interview though... I feel more confident in my ability to sell myself in person and always get a better sense of how the interview went based on some non-verbal cues, reactions, etc. After following up with the hiring manager a couple weeks later once again for an update / timeline on the next step, I was once again informed by the corporate recruiter that I was a final candidate and would meet with the hiring manager and a district manager in person for one last interview. I didn't know until afterward that I was one of just two final candidates. I felt I positioned myself and handled the final questions extremely well. However, I sensed that a couple unscripted questions hinted that they had some kind of concern over me being the long-term 'fit' for this position. After the interview, I felt that they only logical reason that they wouldn't offer me the job was that I was either too expensive for them based on my experience and salary history or that they felt I wouldn't stick around for long-term although I tried to make it clear to them that I was committed to the position. After about a week, I got another call from the DSG recruiter. This time it was bad news that the other candidate beat me out for the position. I was interested in hearing some feedback, not to defend myself, but instead to better position myself for future applications. The recruiter could/would only relay that the other candidate was a better fit. This was the only part of the process that left a bad taste in my mouth... I was one of two final candidates and the hiring manager wouldn't offer me the professional courtesy to call or even email me himself to inform me of his decision. I wanted a.) closure on the application process and b.) honest feedback to better myself for future opportunities. Therefore, I emailed the hiring manager and asked for any feedback he would be willing to offer. He emailed back and set up a time/day to talk over the phone. I thought this was great. Unfortunately, he missed this call by an hour and a half so we set another time/day to talk. He didn't call at all this next time but sent an email much later to set up a third time to call. Finally we got connected three weeks later and unfortunately he didn't provide any useful criticism/feedback/information for me. All he could say was the experience and personality of the other candidate was a better fit. I accepted this information, thanked him for his time, and moved on with only this last part of the process seeming unprofessional in my opinion.
