Received an email a day or 2 after applying, was contacted via email and then by phone for a phone screen interview by M.S., their tech recruiter. Interview went great with M.S., he then set me up for a tech phone interview a few days later. M.S. and another colleague were kind enough to provide content to review before the interview.
As soon as the tech phone interview started, I knew this whole process was going down the drain. Throughout the entire phone call, the interviewer had extreme loud background noise, as if furniture was being moved around or some type of construction was going on in their home. The person had to mute themselves at times because of the noise and they knew I was hearing it because I would (reactively) speak a bit louder. Because of their background noise the interviewer at times would get lost in what I was speaking on or misunderstood something I mentioned. In addition, this person had no energy what so ever, like I literally felt this person “HAD” to interview me instead of “wanting” to. The interviewer was even lost in a scenario I repeated about three times from a provided compass presentation video url I had received.
So why did I feel the interview had no interest at all? Well at the beginning of the phone call, the interviewer asked me where I am from, because of my first name. My first name, a popular name in the interviewer’s country, is spelled with X letters, while in their country, it’s spelled with an additional letter to the name. AS SOON as the interviewer mentioned that and talked about it, I knew for a fact I was not proceeding to the next round. The energy in her voice went straight to the ground. This person is most likely only looking to advance candidates from her country/nationality to the position, an issue that many companies, even my current one in some departments; have. I wouldn’t be surprised if that department has team members from similar nationalities.
I honestly had a more insightful/technical phone interview with their tech recruiter M.S. days prior who seemed more knowledgeable about the company and tech than the interviewer.
I wish M.S. continued success.