I received my first call in a pretty timely fashion, we had a great discussion on the job responsibilities and expectations. Went over the basic information, skills, experience, expectations. A few days later I received an email asking for a second phone interview. I accepted and we had it a few days later.
This was with one of the members of management over the department that I applied for. He went into more detail to what it was and how it worked. By this time I had already done additional research on the company and had experimented with their software a bit and I asked him to get into more detail based off of things that I had seen.
The manager asked me the same set of questions that the first person did. He said that it was a pleasure to talk to me.
1-2 weeks later I get an email asking for me to come into their office for a third interview. Looking at the interview setup through JobVite This interview consisted of 10 people and was almost 5 hours in Length.
I arrived on site 10 minutes early, it was commented that I was early. most people aren't. I was criticized for being overdressed for the interview. I came in a Business attire shirt and tie, and was told that it was too much. I was always told you need to put your best foot forward, regardless.
It was split into groups. The first was a group of 2, We had a lovely discussion, and they again asked me the same questions that the first two interviews asked. Then it was The manager that I already spoke with on the phone, he again repeated the exact same questions he asked me on the phone. The following interview was the other manager from the department by himself. Everyone else that followed was split into groups of two. It was 6 separate interviews in almost 5 hours.
On interview Number 5, one person got a little confrontational. I was asked for an opinion between two different commands in Linux that do exactly the same thing, I gave them my preference. They went into defensive mode as if I had just attacked them. When they said I was wrong, I asked why, all I got for a response was "It just is." I again asked why, and I again got "It just is". I told them to give me a use case to why it's a superior command to use and I'll change how I do things. They said nothing at that point. The other person in the room just sat there with a somewhat surprised look on their face. Wither this was planned to see how I would handle confrontation, or if it was just this persons personality I have no idea. but it put a sour taste in my mouth for the company.
Everyone, every group, every person asked me the exact same 12 questions, The follow up questions had very very few differences. So over the course of the entire experience, it totaled almost 9 hours in interviews, and I got asked the same dozen question no less than 8 times. There appears to be almost no intercommunication at all.
I asked why they have it slotted for this many hours and the response I got was "This just works better for the interviewees. " My personal experience was the reverse could not have been more true. It was an exhausting and frustrating experience. I understand that they don't want their time wasted but they don't seem to value the time of the people they are interviewing either.
I was criticized for being overdressed for the position. I came in a shirt and tie, and was told that it was too much.
The people who I talked to seemed to enjoy their job. (Short of the one person) But this process was unnecessarily lengthy. The people who do interviews need to share information as to not make people repeat answers to the same 12 questions multiple times.
When I asked how long it would be before I could expect a response. I was told that they are moving quickly. so probably 2-3 weeks from that day. It had already been 3 weeks, I don't know if they are mis-informed, or didn't realize what phase of interviews they were doing, because 6 weeks. is not a "Quick process" .
I would have taken the offer if I had received one. But honestly, I'm kind of relieved that I wasn't offered. Their inefficiency and bureaucratic methods are going to hurt them greatly if they don't change the way they handle people.
