TLDR: Immature leadership - a headache of a process not worth your time.
I applied for the Learning & Development, Global Support role on August 1st. After speaking with the recruiter, they decided that even though I was remote, they would speak with the team to see if that would work. I was then scheduled with the hiring manager. 15 minutes before my first conversation with him, that was scheduled for an hour, he emailed me saying he would be 30 minutes late. He was then 7 minutes late to the remaining 30 minutes of our meeting and was not able to extend the conversation. He did most of the talking, allowing myself to answer a few questions, however, we didn't have enough time to cover any of my questions.
I then spoke with someone leaving that department to join HR about curriculum design & development, the kinds of programs I’ve run, the outcomes, how to measure the success of those programs, etc. It was a good conversation and it seemed much more of a first interview. The hiring manager finally followed up to let me know that me being remote would work, however, there would be a 6-month immersion plan. That said, he wasn’t able to provide any details.
Some two weeks later I was asked to come onsite. In the onsite schedule that was provided, there was no agenda beyond who I would be speaking with - nothing with regard to the types of questions or interviews or purposes thereof. The first interview was with the person who was leaving the department to join HR, who upon entering the room said, "Hey, just relax, this isn't some big test, we just want to get to know you". There weren't any new questions, nothing relating to strategy or types of content I've created (that we hadn't already discussed in my previous interview with this person), how I've managed teams, etc. It was a very forgettable first interview. I then met with the hiring manager, who was late again, by about 10 minutes. Once again he did most of the talking about the team, expectation, and strategy that he is working on, internal tools, some of the VIP training they are doing, how one person working on that training might report to this role; really every time I spoke with him, what stood out the most, is that he's always talking about the most important thing of the day, rather than what he'd like this role to be/act as under his leadership advancing the strategy of the department, etc.
After this interview, I then was to speak with the 2 (possibly 3) people that would be reporting to this role. The meeting started 10 minutes late. At one point I looked over towards the barista counter (yes, of course, there's a goddamn barista counter) and noticed two people looking over in my direction talking, and I thought to myself, "wow, I really hope these aren’t two of the interviewers, looking at me talking because that would be painfully unprofessional". To my utter dismay, that was two of them, the other person wasn't even in the office to interview me and they didn't have any prepared questions.
As I'm waiting for my Lyft after the interview, the person waiting for an interview beside says he's applying for the same role as me. *facepalm*
The followup notes I received about the Onsite was that I was "too casual". I was then asked to complete a design project. It was easy and I presented it to them along with some additional content that I added.
A week after this (it's been almost two months by now) they say I get a call from the hiring manager again, he says we need to make sure we're aligned on the "6-month immersion" plan, and I think we're good". I'm thinking, you've got to be kidding me here, in almost two months where you narrowed down your candidate to me, you *still* haven't decided what the immersion plan actually is? When I pressed him on details, he asked for my input, "what do you think it should be?"...Oh for christsake, I wish I could add a *facepalm* emoji to this review. I very considerately provided what I thought was a good idea of what that immersion plan should be, and he said: "okay, I'll send you what I think it will be and then we should talk after you get it". What I received was almost impossible to read gant-chart schedule. where I would be traveling 80% of the time.
I replied back to that email saying "I'd love to chat about the schedule, lets set up some time to discuss the details" and never got an email back from him. Then I get a phone call from the recruiter saying "hey we've decided we aren't going to do remote anymore, thanks for your time".
Great Job!
