Thursday, April 30, 2009

An incredibly weird job interview

I had a job interview about a week or so ago. (As background, I have experience being a software developer using Oracle databases, but not as a Data Base Administrator, who works directly with the database itself.)

The job had a number of technical requirements related to Oracle database work. I told the recruiter that I had experience with about 1/2 of them, and didn't have any experience with the other 1/2. The recruiter said "no problem, they've seen your resume and love what they see. They'll train you on anything you don't have. You've already got the job, so lets do the security clearance paperwork to get a head start." I thought that was a little strange (especially the "You've already got the job part") but figured I'd see what happened.

So here's how the approximately 20-minute interview went. There were 3 people in the room - the Project Manager, a non-technical woman (from what I could see) who reported to the PM, and a Technical Guy.

Minutes 1-2: A summary of what the company did. No small talk, like "how was your drive? Did you find us ok?"

Minutes 3-10: Questions from the Technical Guy and my answers in the following format:

Q: Do you have any experience with [x]?
A: No, I'm a developer, and that's more of a DBA job.

Q: Do you have any experience with [y]?
A: No, I'm a developer, and that's more of a DBA job.

Q: Do you have any experience with [z]?
A: Not directly - I do have experience with [q], which is something like [z]

Q. How about [m]?
A. Nope.

Q. [n]?
A. Nope.

Q. Ok, I'm done.

PM: Any questions?
A: [flabbergasted], Ummm, Nope. I think Technical Guy had more than enough questions for both of us.

Minutes 11-19: The 3 of them talked among themselves about a variety of subjects. PM lost her wedding ring, PM and subordinate showed each other pictures on a cell phone, and Technical Guy had, for the first time in 25 years, noticed that a tree in his yard actually flowered.

Minute 20: "Thanks for coming". and I'm escorted out of the building.

I get to the car, and I'm just furious. So I get home and call the recruiter, and make it clear to them that they were incredibly rude and wasted my time. (Not theirs, apparently - they were enjoying the chance to chat amongst themselves). Next day recruiter tells me he got an email that said "it wasn't a fit". "Must have been a miscommunication". Sheesh.

1 Comments:

At 1:09 PM, Blogger Bill Baar said...

Paul, FWIW, I've been in these situations before and the best bet is to be very gracious about it. Send that thank you note and don't get mad. They're can easily be another vacancy out there you fit perfectly. You don't fit what you interviewed for but they can easily think afterwords you'd be a great fit for the job they haven't gotten around to advertising for... I have had that happen to me and ended up getting a promotion.

 

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