A hiring manager called me to see company fit. Since I applied to multiple positions, he had me apply for specific positions in his department. I applied to those positions, then emailed him my top 3 three choices. He recommended that we start with the Senior SDET position even though my experience aligned much better with a Senior Systems Analyst position. He said that if during the on-site interview that we both see a better fitting role, then we can move in that direction at that time.
A recruiting coordinator scheduled a one-hour on-site panel interview consisting of 3 managers from the department. She called me during work hours. The recruiting industry standard is to email the candidate because it is the easiest form of communication and because people don’t usually answer their phones when they are at work. She asked if I was available the very next day. Usually people’s calendars aren’t wide open on such short notice. I suggested a later day in the week. Within the day, she emailed me an interview confirmation message.
I arrived 30 minutes early as suggested by the email due to limited parking. Parking was available immediately. The hiring manager showed up 15 minutes late because the front desk never notified him of my arrival. He showed up with another manager who stopped awkwardly at the front desk to get some free candy.
When we arrived at the interview room, there were 2 other managers sitting at the table with their computers. The hiring manager introduced us all and said that because he already talked to me over the phone, he will let the 3 managers in the room interview me. The hiring manager left the room and that was when everything went downhill.
In general, all 3 interviewers were reserved and cold, not personable or welcoming. They asked me extremely technical questions right from the beginning. As stated earlier, I do not have the work experience required for a Senior SDET position, much less a regular SDET position, but the hiring manager really strongly believed that I did, so that’s why we were doing this interview. The 1st interviewer (the manager that walked in with the hiring manager at the beginning) was extremely rude and unprofessional. He was staring at his phone and texting the entire time I was answering questions, even his questions. The only time he wasn’t on his phone was when he was physically speaking his questions to me. Then he left the room for the remainder of the interview. He spent maybe 10 minutes in the room total before he disappeared awkwardly and promptly.
The 2nd second interviewer was the least reserved and cold, and I could see that she made an effort to communicate effectively with me. She asked me to draw some conceptual diagrams of projects I’ve led in the past. A few things she had me draw seemed really repetitive, e.g., one project I led replaced only one part of the entire ecosystem, but she had me draw the before and after state even though only one part changed. She also asked me if I had extensive business knowledge of all the business processes that went on outside of the technical solution, which was honestly no because I was part of the technical development team, not the business team. She also repeatedly asked if all of these projects that I described and drew for her were the most complex projects I’ve ever had, and if there were any other more complicated projects that I might have been involved with. She was strongly implying that my projects were super basic and not complex enough for her, her team, or the department in general.
The 3rd interviewer was equally reserved and cold as the awkward unprofessional interviewer who stared at his phone the entire time and left the room after 10 minutes. This 3rd interviewer asked me if I knew anything about various testing theories, to which I replied no because I only led one project as both a systems analyst and testing analyst. I had no formal education in my undergraduate classes about various testing theories. He then asked me why did I even apply for this position if I have no interest in testing. That was an extremely loaded question, to which I answered that when I spoke with the hiring manager on the phone, he recommended that we start with this position and move on to another position as we see fit.
Overall, it wasn’t the hiring manager’s fault that the interviewers were not properly trained to communicate with other people outside their comfort zones, much less interview and represent the company to potential candidates. However, it was the hiring manager’s fault for recommending to start interviewing me for this position. And it was his fault for not making sure that the interviewers had enough background knowledge of me by reading through my resume at least once. This was an extremely negative interview experience that I had with this team and with this company, and I doubt that I will ever apply or respond to a job opportunity here again.
