Informatica Interview Questions & Reviews in Redwood City, CA

Interviewed Sep 2008 in Redwood City, CA (took 3 days)

I applied online and the process started when the recruiter contacted me to schedule phone interviews. The hiring manager spoke to me to get a feel of my education, experience, availability location, salary details etc...and then the interviewing began. My resume was quite detailed and as it turns out, I was not a perfect fir for the role advertised. But I considered myself a good fir because I had the ability to quickly fill any gaps in my skill levels.

First a team of three members asked questions thoroughly about my skills and back ground. At this point, they should have known very well that I fell a little short. However, they interviewed me one more time and then a team leader interviewed me. It was the same set of questions by the same set of people for at least 2 or three rounds. I gave the same answers. Then the recruiter wanted to schedule face 2 face interviews. At this point I was quite encouraged that they would consider hiring me. For that reason, I traveled on my personal expense to attend those interviews (Skimpy company policy that they wouldnt pay for interview travel). Same set of people who interviewed on the phone and same questions again! Sounded like the phone interviews were simply a waste of time. What followed was perhaps the most frustrating time in my career. The director of the group spoke to me and started asking some stupid questions - like why did I change my jobs frequently in the past etc...Well all that is already in my resume - why ask me now and this far into the process after making me travel on my own? After a few minutes of talking to him, I started to get a feel that the result would be negative and was mentally prepared for it. And then they proved they were total nut jobs when it comes to handling prospective talent. The director said that my skills were not up to the mark - but they still liked to hire me for a different position (I was totally confused)....So I went through another F2F interview for the new position. Then they said it is all done and that I would be contacted later. I left confused but confident that I would get an offer. They emailed me a week later that there was no interest in hiring me. I was totally dejected that I had to go through all the pain, travel, effort, cost and expectation for no good. They could have easily made that decision after the phone interviews. I am writing this hoping this would be a good example for prospective candidates.