I applied online. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at IHG Hotels and Resorts
Interview
Initial screening with human resources recruiter was positive. Great interview questions which made it engaging. Was informed that I would be moving to the next steps in the interviews and would receive a communication by the end of the week. After a week, no response from human resources or hiring manager. Reached out several times (via email and phone) and still was told someone would reach out for an interview. Final response (6 weeks later), recruiter informed me "your application is with the hiring manager and we are only a recruiting company to help with the screening, we don't work for IHG". Shame to keep someone's hope up thinking they are moving to the next steps and then find out that you didn't interview with a company employee.
I applied in-person. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at IHG Hotels and Resorts (Athens, GA) in Nov 2015
Interview
It touched on the skills that I brought to the table, with emphasis on customer service. The questions were phrased in such a way that you must answer them from a customer service standpoint
I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at IHG Hotels and Resorts (Atlanta, GA) in Feb 2017
Interview
A 30 minute phone screen was scheduled. I had previously spent perhaps 30 minutes in conversation with a recruiter who knew the interviewer on a personal basis. 10 minutes were used skipping down my resume. 15 minutes were spent on describing how I would improve the performance of scrum teams. This was posed as an abstract question with no technical fill-in to support any conclusion. The interviewer let it be known at one point that developers were "spending his employers money." There was the implication that IHG was getting nothing for that.
I attempted to gently suggest that many IT issues begin with managers, hoping to elicit the management context in which developers were performing at what was described as 25% of expected output. My interviewer appeared to be Type A in panic mode.
In the last 5 minutes I obtained enough information through a question that indicated to me where performance issues for developers flowed from. A sad situation like so many other IT related stories in America. Just sad.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Scrum teams or pods were described as meeting 5 of 20 a point metric in completing expected work during two week sprints. I do not know if the performance shortfalls were discussed in daily standups. I do not know if there were reflections at the end of a sprint. This scenario was described then the question posed: how would you improve performance? After this being asked the third time, I finally replied "well three strikes and you are out I suppose." Frustrating. But then to key to the performance issues fell in place -- for me. Perhaps the question should have been: tell me how to solve this, then you can go on your way. :-)