The role was "Director of Engineering. The interview cycle consisted of three individual interviews, recruiter, principal engineer and recruiting manager, followed by an on-site loop. I went through only the first interview. On the positive side, the interviewer was thorough and professional. He presented all the HR constraints - location of the work, compensation structure - with clarity.
INTERVIEW STYLE - That particular interviewer did not ask follow-up questions. For instance, on the question "why applying", I wanted to make it conversational so I started with a very short answer, expecting a follow up. This did not happen, so I missed an opportunity there. This is the only trap I noticed, although it was probably not intentional on the interviewer part. After that, I was mentally making an effort to convert his questions in the format "tell me about a time" so I would explain the context, the outcome and the take away for Nike.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE - The role of director of engineering seems more of a "senior engineering manager". There might be a bit of title inflation on the management side. That particular role is reporting to a senior director - although I did not ask, I believe there might be two more levels before the CTO. The leadership structure seems very hierarchical, which is surprising given Nike claims to be a matrixed organization.
BIAS - On the cons side, it felt like a first date, and not in a good way. The reason I did not get further might have been related to a few gaps in my skill set. Nevertheless, it felt like a ‘good old boy’ dynamic.
I could tell in the first minute that the interviewer had made his mind, based on his tone, and shift in friendliness. At that point, the only thing the interviewer could make a judgement on was the "cover of the book", and in my case my accent.
This push back against anything "foreign" was further reinforced by the interviewer's response to one of my questions. I wanted to clarify the relationship with India (ITC engineering group / 700 Nike employees in India). The difference of time zone would have been an impediment to good communication. The interviewer downplayed the relevance of my question regarding India. It was not a good feeling, given the spirit of deep autonomy granted to engineering pods at Nike.
POTENTIAL - I would have loved working in that group, particularly with the high-profile CTO, and the recent hire of the EVP for Consumer, Production and Innovation.