I put my cv on a jobsite and recieved a phone call directly from the hiring manager the following day. He launched right into to talking to me about the role and rather unusually he did not really ask me very many questions about myself, my experience or my goals but just talked AT me for a solid 30 minutes, I remember thinking this was odd but I was keen to move on from my employer so when he invited me to attend an interview a couple of days later I accepted.
I arrived for the interview and was initially feeling quite positive, the office was nice and smart with a few brightly coloured walls and slightly over ambiguous 'values' painted on the walls. I've since read this is a bad sign, if you need to display your values on the wall, they are probably not working!
The interview was just with the hiring manager, I was surpised there was no one else attending. As with the phone interview, he did not ask me many questions but went into detail about upcoming projects and how busy the small team were. It was apparent he wanted to hire someone quickly to ease the workload and judging by his lack of actual interviewing, he wasn't too concerned with who he hired! I was then shown around the office, I knew from previous experience that this was a tell-tale sign that I had got the job.
I got an offer the following day from the internal resourcing team, they knew I had another offer on the table but still only offered me the same amount as the other offer. Fortunately for them, money was not the be all and end all so I accepted.
Dealing with the internal resourcing team over the next few weeks to go through the on-boarding/screening was not a great experience, they were particularly difficult to get hold of and not very personable which is not ideal when you are dealing with arranging start dates and signing contracts.
Looking back the whole process was very rushed, driven by the hiring managers urgency to get support with a high workload and desparation to hire the next person that walked in. I also rushed into my decision as I was keen to leave my previous job, I should have taken more time to mull it over and to get to know the people I would be working with. Ultimately this is a stepping stone and not a long term career.