VERY unimpressive interview process. The COO seems to be the person that screens applications, screens candidates on the phone and schedules interviews. I found that odd for this size of company - and based on my experience - they obviously need to hire a good HR director / manager.
The interview was conducted with a 6 to 8 person panel of (I guess) managers or team leaders, possibly other executives. They introduced themselves by first name only and did not share what their title or area of responsibility was, or why they had an interest in attending the interview. I was seated at the head of a long conference table (12' or so, maybe 16') and they spread themselves out on either side. The COO was present during the interview, but did not speak.
This first interview was lengthy, with various members of the panel speaking to the areas of responsibility and customer base of their software applications. These explanations seemed off-the-cuff and rambling; some useful information came of it but not an overall concise presentation. The salary range was not discussed, but they all had copies of my resume, cover letter that complied with their request to state my minimum required salary, completed application, a written test, and an extensive questionnaire that I submitted prior to the interview. The final speaker was unfriendly, obviously annoyed to be there, and spoke in a roundabout way then expressed annoyance when I needed clarification of what he was asking me. It took almost 2 hours, and as I was leaving the COO mentioned their recruitment process was in the early stages and did not know specifically when he would get back to me. I found it a very unprofessional, disorganized, and probably the strangest interview I have ever attended. I also did not expect to hear back from them, and was not terribly concerned about it.
I did receive a follow up phone call from the COO just hours later, requesting that I return for a 2nd interview in a few days. I asked what I could expect from this 2nd meeting and was told I would be meeting with another management team. I did not think I could be more unimpressed, but decided I had nothing to lose by going through another round and seeing what came of it.
Well, silly me. Round 2 was even more disturbing. I was called in to sit in the same conference room with most of the representatives from the 1st interview, and a couple new faces. One introduced himself and began by asking what I did in my spare time, hobbies, etc. He further explained he just wanted to see if I would be a good "fit". He was the most friendly and engaging person I had encountered, and we talked for 5 minutes or so. The other new face did not bother to introduce himself or speak. I was then shown back to the reception area by the COO, who mumbled an explanation that they needed to discuss my application.
A few minutes later I was shown back to the conference room, and the COO stated that they were offering me a position and stated the offered salary. I was stunned....it was so incredibly low that I wasn't certain what had just transpired. I have a very solid background and many years of experience in an area that they openly stated they need expertise in and were interested in me for that reason. It was substantially lower than my minimum required salary that they requested disclosure of to even submit an application, and below area market level. I also have never had to negotiate a job offer in front of a "panel" of people that did not seem necessary to the process or even interested in being present. There was no discussion of benefits, so I asked about it and requested a few days to consider their offer. I didn't need to consider it, just needed to gather my wits and try to figure out what the heck had just transpired.
Needless to say, I did not accept. I did not even to attempt to negotiate a better salary. If I were to take the offer personally I would be deeply offended, but I am not going to even be bothered to do so. This tells me that this company is not willing to invest in proven skills, abilities and experience. Worse - they expressed a desire to have long-term employees that add value to their services, but are too cheap to back that up with a reasonable salary offer that will attract - and retain - good personnel.
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
It looks as if some current personnel of this company are on a campaign to write glowing reviews in an attempt to mitigate the much larger number of negative reviews. Good luck with that, folks.
