I was reached out to on LinkedIn and had a phone screening with the recruiter. It was straightforward; she asked why I chose my university, what I do in my current role, what I’m looking for in my next role, etc. The next day, I was offered a final round interview onsite in Elmhurst, IL. Even though the company has bad reviews, I was curious to see what the workplace was like for myself, so I agreed to fly out. I wish the company had asked me for my preferred airline, airplane seats, and hotel chain when booking my flights, as they put me on mixed-airline flights in seats at the very back of the plane.
The on-site final round interview consisted of a 1.5-hour tour of the office and warehouse, 45-min 1:1 interview, 15-min break, 45-min 1:1 interview, 1-hour lunch (with 2 interviewers), and the final 45-min 1:1 interview. Overall, I really enjoyed talking to the interviewers, as they were friendly and informative. The conversations were relaxed and purely behavioral with no technical questions, as they don’t expect you to be technical coming in. No complaints about the interview process itself, as everything went smoothly, but the one thing that made me a little uncomfortable was the interviewer print-out they give you at the beginning. This was a schedule with pictures and details about your interviewers, and this was really helpful in guiding the day, but the interviewers’ universities were listed on there which came off as pretentious. Most companies don’t list this, and it’s not usually even a topic of discussion, so this led me to wonder how their initial candidate search works.
As for the company culture... I was shocked to see how closed-off the company is to the rest of the world. The place runs on homegrown software, meaning they write all their apps and sites themselves and prefer to not deal with 3rd party vendors. For a company this size, I wasn’t expecting this, though to be fair, they aren’t a tech company. The term “tech debt” has only recently been introduced to the company, and a lot of their procedures and policies are outdated. For example, there are no guidelines for managers to grow their direct reports’ careers, there are no set title distinctions between entry and senior level positions, they only recently realized that they shouldn’t hide their products from Google for fear of proprietary theft, and there aren’t specific methods of encouraging constructive feedback. Overall, it seems that this company—specifically the Systems department—is lagging behind in best practices.
The work life balance seems great! There’s a policy that only directors can have work email on their phone, which I think is an innovative and healthy mindset. The benefits seemed okay, though the retirement benefit isn’t a real 401k and is on a vested schedule, which is disadvantageous for the employees.
The office itself was nice. I thought the design promoted a positive work environment, as the conference rooms were sleek and modern, and the cafeteria was welcoming. The warehouse was really interesting to tour, as everything was impressively well functioning and efficient (especially for the size of their operations).
Overall, I had an enjoyable experience interviewing with McMaster-Carr. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend the company itself given what I learned in the interview process. If you’re looking to pick up technical skills, I’d recommend working for an actual tech company (unless you have no background at all in this field and are looking for a place to get started).
