Lebara Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed May 2010 in London, England (United Kingdom) (took a day)

I was informed by a recruitment agency that Lebara were looking for an SEO executive, so I had a look at their job description. The job looked a bit above my level of experience, although not above my understanding and ability. I was told by the recruiter that Lebara were willing to 'develop' someone with 6+ months of commercial SEO experience. I liked the sound of that, as I felt I didn't have enough experience to hit the ground running in a highly pressurised environment.

I arrived in a very nice office block slightly east of central london, walked through reception, and took the lift up to the appropriate floor. After a few minutes I was greeted by a short and rather serious looking interviewer, who led me up to a tiny interview room, all glass-walled.

I could see that this interview was going to be more confrontational. Although the interviewer seemed like a decent guy, the phoney seriousness was quite a distraction and frankly did not inspire me to either work with him, or the company. What suprised me was the level of bad mouthing he directed towards the company he worked for, in particular the website, as well as the office area and the other internet marketing companies I said I had applied to recently. The interview had started with a brief description of why he was interviewing me - basically to see what my personality was like. He then asked me what I do for fun in my free time. At this point I knew that it was going to be a little off-the-wall and not too technical, as that was to follow if there was a second interview apparently.

Througout the interview he forgot what I'd said on numerous occassions, provided a few ridiculous answers to my technical questions (going back on himself), and gave himself more excuses to moan about various aspects of the internet marketing industry. There were also periods of silence where he'd wait for me to speak before moving on. Overall it seemed to me that the interviewer was not enjoying his job, had a huge uphill struggle to get far too much work done, and was not that interested what I had to offer. I could see him blowing up at the slightest wrongdoing. I also had the feeling that he was not able to foster relationships easily, which is vital in SEO, both internally and externally.

Although I've not heard from the company, and said I'm interested in a second interview, I'm not interested in pursuing that, or any other, role there. If you're interested, the role was much more management than technical.