I was interviewing for a new position at another company the other day (not that I dislike my current job, but nice to know what’s out there). I’m probably not going to end up taking it even if I get an offer, but one thing did strike me as amusing.
One question I ask everyone that interviews me is “What would you change about the company if you could change anything?” It’s one of those questions where there isn’t a right answer but there sure are a lot of wrong ones, and you sometimes get more candid responses about what kind of place you’re getting into. Anyway, I had two interviewers that gave the two responses (obviously at separate times):
“Well, we don’t have enough process - people are changing things willy-nilly and the system is getting unstable as a result. We really need to convince people that change management is not just red tape but it’s there to keep things on the rails”
contrast with:
“Ugh, we have way too much process. Tons of bureaucracy that keeps us from just getting things done. I’d dump most of the red tape and get our changes out there faster so progress isn’t so slow”.
Given that these two guys would be my boss and my grandboss, wasn’t sure that was a situation I wanted to get into.
Any amusing or just plain weird interview stories from the dope?
Obviously I’m not in the right industry, but what does “process” mean in this context (I can guess of course)? And the fact that that buzzword immediately makes me want to punch someone’s manager is perfectly sane, right?
A couple of years ago, I was interviewing for a temp position. It had been advertised as a 6-month gig to take care of a backlog. As a retiree looking for a little extra cash, it was an ideal fit.
I was interviewed by a team of 5 - not sure why that many people had to be there, but whatever. And they all knew from the start that I was retired and looking to make a little extra spending money without a long-term commitment. So I was literally stopped in my tracks when one of the guys asked “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
Honest-to-goodness, it took all my self-control not to laugh and let the snark roll. I think I said something about hoping to be retired for real by then.
I did get the job, and when I mentioned that question to my supervisor, he said he pretty much had the same reaction that I did.
The most ridiculous interview I’ve ever had was this one:
I thought it might be good to get on board with one of the large, local consulting firms in the D.C. area. They contracted with the federal, military and state governments for so many things that they had constant openings in my line of work. After applying for two posted openings, their HR finally contacted me to arrange for an interview. She told me to report to one of their offices near me on $date and $time. When I did, I was shown into a large room full of tiny tables, with about ten other interviewees. Each tiny table had a chair in front of it and a chair behind it. Each interviewee was instructed to sit at a different table… actually I think I remember they had paper name signs on each table. Over the next 2.5 hours we sat at our tables while a steady stream of interviewers went table to table and interviewed us each for about 10 minutes. Some people got offers but I didn’t “click” with anybody so left without being hired.
Just adding insult to injury, as we left I noticed that the counter outside our room had lots of food and beverages placed out there and the interviewers were noshing. Nobody had told us interviewEES that we could also refresh ourselves. Similarly, weren’t told where the bathrooms were. I won’t be interviewing with that company again.
TL;DR it was interviewing in a speed dating format. And less effective for job placement than it is for establishing personal relationships!
To answer **thelurking horror **and digs, in the software development world, process is shorthand for all the parts of the development lifecycle that aren’t actual design, coding, testing and deploying. Hoops to jump through, documents to file to pass a certain stage, bureaucratic BS, etc. To people whose talent and job description involves developing software, all of that stuff seems extraneous. In many companies, the software development lifecycle becomes 90% red tape, 10% designing, coding and testing. “Too much process” is a perfectly cromulent way to express that to someone else in the business. To hear “too much” and “too little” from two people in the same organization seems pretty weird, unless one of them is a former coder and one is from a pure project management background.
Huh, I had that exact same interviewing experience for a DC government contractor myself. I thought it was really arrogant of the company to think a bunch of new grads would put up with being treated like cattle. More interesting, after I accepted a job at a different company and called to tell them I was no longer interested, the recruiter was stunned that a candidate would have the audacity to turn them down.
Odd thing was, they were both writing code (which seemed odd to me, that someone 3 levels above the generic developer would still be writing code instead of doing more strategic work, but whatever). I think the key difference was that one of them had been there a decade and the other had been there less than a year.
I once had a phone interview that was seemingly going really well - I was highly qualified and was nailing the questions asked - but there was a slightly perfunctory undercurrent on his part. The interview ended with something like, “Well, I hope we get the chance to work together someday!” Turns out they were already in the process of hiring someone. Thanks for wasting my time, guys.
As a postscript, I later interviewed for the company again, for an almost identical position - they were still trying to fill a void. Nailed the phone interview, went in, nailed the physical interview, they were very enthusiastic about bringing me on… and then the CEO had a private chat with me, stating his intent to replace their CTO - the guy doing the interviews - and wanting me to take his place. I just needed to keep this quiet for the first few months while I gleaned his technical knowledge before they cut him loose. Anyway, things got too weird (many factors at play) and I eventually turned down the position. Sorry for wasting your time, guys.
That is all kinds of awkward. Sounds like a pretty bad case of defective leadership to begin with if they felt they need to fire their CTO but had allowed him to become their “bus factor 1” employee. And being asked to step in and milk him until the hatchet falls? Ouch.
Probably my most awkward interview moment came late last year when I was shopping around for a better job. I interviewed remotely with a company down in LA and received an offer. They seemed eager to move forward, and when I told them that I couldn’t say yes immediately because I was waiting on a couple of other prospects, they offered to fly me down so I could meet some of the other engineers. Well, it was a bitter cold December in Seattle, and a day in warm and sunny Los Angeles sounded nice, so I took them up on it.
When I got there, they had some people show me around the office, bought me lunch, the usual niceties. Then they put me in a small conference room with a junior dev… who proceeded to start asking me interview questions. I had to interrupt him and tell him I already had an offer, and I was here to interview them. Things got slightly uncomfortable after that.
They had apparently scheduled me for a couple more meetings, but after that one, I snuck out of the building as soon as my HR escort turned her back, grabbed a couple drinks at the nearest bar I could find, headed to the airport, and had the airline switch my ticket to an earlier flight.
Process in this context means formalised ways of doing specific things. When the balance is right, it’s a good thing, because it means you don’t have to invent your methods for tackling recurring tasks or problems all over again every time.
One guy was saying that the problem is caused by people m aking it up as they go along. The other was proposing that as a solution.