4-5 interviews. Took about a month. 1st: meeting with manager (everything seemed fine). 2nd: technical interview + 30 minute interview with another hiring manager. It wasn’t that hard. 3rd: Interview with director. I got a couple of yellow flags from this interview, but it was mostly standard nothing too crazy. 4th: In person with HR. This is where some 🚩 got thrown. HR questions were mostly typical, but some were out of pocket. I talked about my salary expectations of 120,000 and was politely asked where I got that number from (“your previous work experience, job market research?”. I just replied “yes” and that seemed good enough, but still). There were a couple more questions like this. The HR person went on to talk about the company’s values. It was a little strange almost (feeling slightly cultish/salesmen-y). After this interview while I was onsite, the director came in and surprised me with a small 5th interview. He basically was asking why I left my previous employer (a question that I had answered before, but I could see he wanted more details). This felt very strange! The only time I was asked anything technical throughout this process was the technical interview. Everything else was about tenure. This paired with their need/insistence for specific references, makes me think that this team suffers from a high attrition rate. It seems that they blame the state of this rate on the integrity of the people they hire and not on the management, which is a delusion that narcissistic leadership leaps into any chance it gets (not saying that this is what is going on here (I really don’t know), but I’m not about to take the chance just to find out). In any case, I was supposed to get their answer a week from the last interview. Instead I got a call asking for more names of my previous managers. I.e. more references that I had not asked permission to add as references. I was reluctant, but I gave into the pushy-ness of the HR guy. After that phone call I decided to move on with other opportunities. Too many red flags. Tips: Don’t be desperate, your skills are valuable. Listen to your gut!!! Have fun with Linux.
