Phone Interview: I received an email from one of the recruiters to set up and interview as Area Operations Manager. We spoke and exchanged information, and we discussed my salary expectations. The recruiter said that I was in the zone of what they were looking to pay, so we could proceed with a phone interview with the hiring official. I spoke to the hiring drop ship manager and chatted on the phone,it seemed the conversation went well. He said he would be in touch with the recruiter to schedule a face-to-face. Recruiter said that his assistant would send an email with the day and time for the face-to- face interview. Days went by, I contacted the recruiter, and he thought I received the email confirmation for the interview; but it looked like it slipped the assistant’s mind, she sends me a rude sounding email, even though it had been over a week. My question is why the recruiter had to reminder her via email to send me the confirmation. Day of interview: I got up to the floor and the receptionist greeted me. The recruiter greeted me and asked me to wait a bit for the interview to start. I waited a long time (by no exaggeration at all) By the time; I met with someone it was a manager from another department. Who just asked random question, I do not think it was planned as she was fishing for questions to ask. Afterwards, I met with the peer managers who all had copies of my resume and seemed ready to dig into every detail about my work history. I noted that 3 out 4 interviewing area managers were younger than I was and had less experience than I had according to my research. However most acted they had been doing it for 30 years. The interviewing area managers asked very detailed questions that made you feel them waiting for you to slip up or find some oversight on your resume. Overall, the interview was a bit too aggressive for my taste and challenging, too much of the area managers patting each other on the back saying, “I did this”, and “I did that”. Last, I met with the drop ship manager, where we went back to his office and he asked me 3 random situational questions, one of memory was about payroll. I felt the questions were the “If you were doing my job right now, what would you do”, which if fine and dandy, but as they say “more than one way to peel a potato” and just because you like your method of peeling the potato better, doesn’t mean there isn’t another way to peel a potato. The conversation ended with my salary and how he could not pay me what I was looking for. He asked if there was any way I could lower it, because I would get that type of money anyway because I did not go to any “Ivy League” college. I thanked him for the interview and told him I had another offer pending (which I got more by the way) the next week. Lastly, I thought they wasted my time by bringing me out, tolls, gas, parking, just to see if I would take less, no good. Beware.

I was contacted via LinkedIn by one of their current employees. The interview was set up as 2 2-interviewer sessions, each one hour long. They were upfront about the possibility of the interview being cut short at any moment if either party decided it wasn't a fit. (I don't think it's the nicest since people take the day off work to come in. Maybe longer phone interviews would be best.) I thought the employees I met with were very fun, friendly, smart people and based on my interactions with them alone, I would have gone for this job. But when I met with the CEO, the process soured. He hadn't seen my salary expectations until that moment and declared them unreasonable, saying they're not a big company. Well, I understand that, but then my advice would be not to pursue top-pedigree talent and ask them to take a pay cut in NYC. Might be better to promote from within in a case like that. He was a weird character and the interview was him trying to prove to me that I am not mature enough. He also challenged my opinions about my current job, which I don't think he's ever performed. I really wish he'd cut the interview short then, but instead he passed me off to the CFO, who was more interesting to talk to but very curt and cold. I finished that interview in 20 minutes and went home knowing that they wouldn't hire me, but I was also not interested anymore. Overall, I think the CEO and CFO could be a little warmer during the process, and they need to be aware of their candidates' salary expectations before the interview. If my salary requirements are a dealbreaker, that's not my fault-- do your homework before the interview!