After 2 weeks submitting my application I was contacted by HR to arrange an interview. The date offered wasn't suitable and a week later was offered another date which I accepted. The interviewer (department director) turned up 13 mins late, mumbled some apology and we have started.
Although the job location advertised was London or Croydon, I only found out at the interview that it has been changed to Croydon only but no-one bothered to tell me that. If I had known I could've saved a trip to Winnersh.
Average behaviour-based interview questions, there wasn't any option to steer it off the script which was a slight disappointment. When I had the chance to ask some questions, the interviewer only focused on to catch the 'hidden meaning' of the question. No, you were wrong - you tried so hard you missed the point completely and it was obvious from the answer. Overall I had the impression that there was no plans or a clear idea in what direction the department should progress. No clue how to market themselves, what the recent trends are in technology they could take advantage of. Overall it was a huge disappointment. To top it all, no feedback for 5 weeks despite promising giving one in 2 weeks and me following it up in 3 weeks. The obvious step was to withdraw my application, I wanted to be nowhere this dysfunction. 7 weeks after the interview HR called me to make an offer, oblivious to the fact I was no longer interested. Awkward silence and wondering why they did not get a notification from their own system when I told my application was withdrawn weeks ago...