From: Mark Schofield (mark_schofield@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Apr 05 2004 - 14:08:46 GMT-3
Craig has added an important point - the interview is a TWO-WAY process.
Unfortunately you were subjected to the High-Stress interviewing
technique. I sympathize with your struggle to hold up against this
largely useless method of conducting a job-interview.
As you point out, the technique reveals more about the interviewers and
their management method of running their company than it does about
investigating your skill set or your personal fit with the existing team.
Thank God that you will not spend the next few years working 60 hour
weeks sitting in the next cube to those people!
Your two hours were painful but ultimately sound to be well-spent -
eliminating that "opportunity"
In your "thank you" letter for the interview you can suggest that the
interviewing team's lack of real world focus in their questions lead you
to believe that the company isn't a good fit for your professional skill
set, since you are committed to working for an industry leader!
Best of luck in your job search,
Mark
>From: "Craig Columbus" <craig.columbus@columbusconsulting.com>
>Reply-To: "Craig Columbus" <craig.columbus@columbusconsulting.com> >To:
"'Chris Larson'" <clarson52@comcast.net> >CC: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
>Subject: RE: Bad Interview Experience >Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 09:24:40
-0500 > >What you have to remember is that an interview, especially for a
more >senior position, is a two way process. Take what happened as a
HUGE red >warning flag. It's very clear that this company either isn't
organized >enough to put the proper people on the interview process or,
they simply >don't have the right people to put on the interview
process. Either >way, it's clear that this company has organizational
and leadership >problems. Unless you're being hired to straighten out
the mess (and >since this was a technical interview, I guess not), I'd
suggest that you >be grateful that you found out the corporate culture
before you accepted >the position. >On a personal note, I've been to a
couple of interviews that proceeded >like the one you described. One was
particularly frustrating since the >interview was with a fairly small
company and the technical interview >panel was composed of the entire IT
staff...a bunch of junior technical >staff members and one "senior"
technical staff member who was not >particularly knowledgeable. I was
interviewing for a newly created >supervisory position and everyone on
the panel would have been reporting >to me. Well, the "senior" technical
staff member grilled me about >several topics on which he really didn't
have a solid grasp. Long story >short, he tried to "correct" me on
several things that he simply didn't >understand, including basic IP
addressing...an actual quote was "I don't >know what you mean by slash
24...there aren't any slashes in IP >addressing...we use a subnet mask of
255.255.255.0 on our network." >Considering that the other staff members
thought this guy was brilliant, >I decided that I'd politely decline the
position. > > >-----Original Message----- >From: nobody@groupstudy.com
[mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of >Chris Larson >Sent: Friday,
April 02, 2004 10:50 AM >To: ccielab@groupstudy.com >Subject: Bad
Interview Experience > >My VistaPrint Electronic Business CardI just
thought I would throw out >an >experience I had yesterday. It was very
unnerving and I wonder if others >have >had similiar experiences. I have
been in networking for better then 12 >years >but only got CCIE certified
in the last year. I have had lots of >interviews >throughout my carreer,
most have had a technical aspect but I never felt >uncomfortable in any
of them until yesterday. > > >Yesterday I walked away from an interview
for a consulting position with >a >relatively large company that most
people would know feeling almost as >if I >had been attacked. The
interview started with 2 people. The hiring >manager and >another
technical person. The technical person had some kind of >attitude. I
>wanted to just stop the interview and tell them that it didn't matter
>about >the job because there was no way in hell I could work with such
an ass >of a >person. This guy had an attitude that almost jumps out and
rapes you. It >wasn't until later that I found he was in fact a fresh
CCIE (not that >all or >in fact any fresh CCIE's are that way, most I
have met are not), but it >might >explain his attitude and his ability to
remember all the details of >those >things you might need to know to pass
the CCIE but have little relevance >in >the day to day operations or
design of a network and certainly the type >of >things that don't require
memory retention for immediate retrival. Most >were >the type of things
that you can get from the router or lookup on CCO if >you >need to or
would get down to using the ? key. > > >Anyway.... As the interview or
"interogation" proceeded, 4 other network >guys >came into the room. The
focus of the entire interview was not my past >experiences at all. I was
not asked one question about my past >experiences or >the successes
listed on my resume. NOT ONE. That is how almost every >interview >I have
been in starts. Kind of an organizational fit, "what have you >been
>doing lately" type of thing. Not this interview. From the very start it
>was 2 >hours of trying to put me back through the CCIE. It was the most
>ridiculous >thing I have ever been through. It was at times
unprofessional and rude. >It >was very surprising coming from a company
with such a reputation. A >couple of >times the newly minted CCIE guy
would make some snide remark or hmph or >whatever. I really can't believe
they perform interviews that way or >even let >guy like that in the
interview. I would think it would turn anyone away >from a >job if they
had to be working with that guy. > > >The fact that I could not write out
a full ios config for VPN on the >whiteboard or confused some of the ios
crypto command syntax with the >pix vpn >command syntax and totally
forgot about transform sets or that I could >not >recall where exactly a
type 4 lsa was generated off the top my head in >front >of a whiteboard
in the middle of an interview was more important then >the fact >that I
had successfully rolled out several large VPN implementations, >had lead
>several large OSPF integrations and had successes and references to back
>it up >going back 12 years. > > >I also was never asked if I had any
questions about the job or the work >environment. I was never asked if I
had any questions at all. I can't >immediatly recall any interview I have
ever been in that lasted any >reasonable >amount of time where I was not
asked if there were any questions I had. >This >interview, if you could
call it that, lasted 2 hours and I was never >asked if >I had any
questions for them.....about the company, about the job >nothing. > > >It
was just very wierd and unprofessional and didn't really seem to have
>anything to do with interviewing a job. > > >After, I called the guy who
set me up with the interview and he said >that the >response was that I
was strong in some areas and weak in others but they >all >agreed I could
do the task. I really don't understand how they arrived >at that
>conclusion. I don't think I would take the job unless the actual job
>location >is somewhere esle. It was a very unpleasant experience. > >
>No point to this really. I just have never really experienced anything
>quite >like that and wanted to tell the story. I have to believe it did
have >something to do with having the CCIE. In fact, toward the end of
the >interview >techy ass guy said something to the effect of "so you
claim to be a big >Cisco >guy, you even have the CCIE logo". I was so
tired of this guy. My >response was >"no I don't think I claim to be some
big Cisco guy, why? Did I say that >somewhere in my resume". Well, I
guess sometimes you have to interview >to know >where you dont want to
work. >
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