Impression about job:
A Service Manager job at Rackspace is not really SDM job. It is more of a customer engagement job and here are the reasons why.
I prepared the interview keeping in my mind that it is for a SDM level job with reasonable financial responisbility. However during the course of the interview Rackspace has no set processes for Incident, Change, Problem or even a proper Service Desk which is aligned to ITIL. There is no financial exposure or decision making involved or any function of bid management as it should exist. You can not influence the financials for your decision making or contract renewal, they are pre set.
Impression about the people interviewing:
Unfortunately the people interviewing me had little experience of Bid Management, Supplier Management and other Service Related Disciplines which would exist in other Outsourcing companies and this was evident from the way questions went. With all due respect when there is no specific tailored service to manage why would you need expensive Service Managers? All you need is good Incident Manager and a people manager to manage them, you don't need a whole team of SDMs. During the interview at points it was evident that the people who could be managing me tomorrow might not be the best for the job as they lacked the experience in Financials, ITIL practical implementation experience, Supplier Management, Actual tailored contract negotiation etc.
Interview itself:
The people who were interviewing me did not seem prepared. The research on my background could have been better. The questions were not challenging enough for such a role, which hints that they are not experienced enough and don't have the breadth and depth knowledge for such a role. I had two face to face interviews and there was no distinction as to what was the purpose of two interviews when the areas and questions covered in both were the same. Normally in circumstances where there are more than one interviews there is a clear purpose of both, this was not apparant. Hence there there didn't seem to be any proper preperation done.
Tips for other people interviewing:
1. Prepare on questions where you delivered Service Improvement for customer. (Important)
2. Know Rackspace's business, both past and future. (V Important)
3. Customer satisfaction. (Very Important)
4. Your own personal development.
Good Points:
People seemed very friendly.
Since the company is growing at a large scale in a growth sector, the chances of progression and many, it was evident from the fact that people intervewing me were promoted quickly.
I didn't hear anything back from them and didn't bother going back as I realised that this job would be a step back for me.