Originally Posted by bunnspecial
Alright, bullet REALLY dodged.
I just received a rather long response to my simple "Thank you for your time and the opportunity" chastising me for wasting their time. The email then went on to advise me that all the "young job seekers" like me need to realize that it's disrespectful to apply for a position and then not be willing to accommodate an interview "whenever it is convenient for the interviewer." The entire email honestly was a bit of a rant aimed squarely at me for my perceived "lack of dedication" to prospective employers and also claimed that they're having trouble hiring anyone for the position because no one "under 40" is willing to "do what is asked of them." I had to read the email 3 times to make sure I was reading it right!
So this has definitely been a learning experience, and also a sure confirmation that I would have likely been miserable working there.
Needles to say, the most recent email won't be getting a response.
Wow...that is bordering on the bizarre. You're supposed to drop all your compensated work for your present job to accommodate some egomaniac who MIGHT give you a job?!?!? Ridiculous!
I went through a couple of phone screens with a Boston area defense R&D center some time ago, wasn't too serious about it but it was an interesting experience. I viewed them as a pseudo-academic operation as they originally sprung out of MIT.
First phone screen was with a guy who clearly was just going through the motions at the start of the call, but ended up telling me he was very enthused about having me go through a conference call screen and then down to their site.
I found the conference call to be hilarious...most of the time was spent discussing a hypothetical situation about a project I would be leading. I was asked what I would do if there was no consensus amongst the team members about how to proceed with solving a difficult technical problem.
Me - "I would discuss the problem in detail with all the team members, do my best to achieve a consensus in a reasonable amount of time, and then choose what I felt was the best course of action based on the discussions if no consensus was achieved."
Frantic Guy - "No, no, you can't do that!! You have to get everybody to agree first."
Me - "You said I'm in charge of the project, right?"
Somebody - "Yes."
Me - "As the project leader, I have to do what I can to keep the project moving forward and I would have to make the decision as to the course of action in that case. That's part of being a leader, and I would certainly take the viewpoints of the other team members into account when I made my decision...but it would be my call in the end, and my responsibility if things didn't go right."
Frantic Guy - "NO NO NO!!! That's not how it works here!!! You have to get everybody to agree! That's how we do things!"
Me, laughing - "How do you get anything done, then? Why do you have project leaders?"
This went on for at least half and hour and we all agreed I was not the right guy to work on that team.