Acceptable Interview Process? [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

So without going into great detail, I've spent approximately 8 hrs of my time meeting about a potential "jump up" (as stated by the hiring manager) in my career, simple department change in the tech field. This began in late March/early April. I feel as though I was being groomed for a position yet to be posted, and I was correct.

To date I have spent at least one hour of nine individuals workdays in the pseudo-interview and formal interview process. The hiring manager was absent for the formal interview for medical reasons but encouraged me to attend regardless.

The interview had only a few red flags but I feel they were big ones: near total lack of concern for tech related questions, asked if I was on drugs (seriously, this wasnt provoked), asked my age to which I had no problem answering confidently though I am young.

All that said, after all these hours spent I haven't heard yes/no/we'll follow up/you did good/you did poorly... nothing whatsoever. The formal interview was just over one week ago.

I'd like to know, from an HR perspective, is this acceptable? i.e. questions you technically aren't allowed to ask, hiring manager being absent for interview, lengthy drawn-out process with no communication channels.

manpreet 2 years ago

If I were you I'd touch base with the hiring manager and ask if things are still progressing. Of course, if the hiring manager is still preoccupied with medical issues your polite inquiry might start the ball rolling again.

However, first determine if the oddball questions that seemed to come from nowhere were appropriate. If you find that the process is not moving forward then provide some "positive minded feedback" concerning how the interview process could be handled in a more professional manner to ensure things go smoothly for the company. Take some time to find an appropriate way to discuss such things or you risk closing the door.

This should elicit a question to which you can carefully respond in a way that doesn't implicate anyone in particular but will allow you to indicate that this and that threw you off and may have negatively impacted the process. Of course, if the questions were not inappropriate for your jurisdiction things are less clear. You'd also want to consider if the dev group spent time digging into what you may consider more relevant and appropriate areas. If they did not then they may not have given you a chance to receive an honest review (even if by mistake due to being overly familiar during the interview process).

When it comes to technical capabilities it will be the devs that are going to provide input into related skills. If you are comfortable with their view of your abilities, and their view of your readiness to move up, then it's possible that another group has some questions. Perhaps the "red flags" are a red herring and your responses in another area could be at issue.

As a general note, if the process does start moving forward keep in mind that you can't let yourself shorten your answers by relying on previous interviews to fill in the blanks. This might happen at times when many folks in the interview process share an interview history or common background while a few others do not.

Good luck!