I applied for the role through a strong referral from another person in the same role. She was very kind and direct - which I appreciate.
Part 1: Recruiter round
- Standards screening questions
- She was brilliant, specific and professional
Part 2: with Team member (a nightmare) and Manager
— Hiring Manager : was very specific, offered context to unstructured questions and most importantly was polite and respectful.
— Team member round was the complete opposite, I have NEVER in 4 years of my career, been in a place where I felt this uncomfortable.
A. His questions were in a structured format and he thankfully managed to read them
B. Throughout the interview, he was constantly touching his face (his jawline to be specific), was leaning onto the camera and fixing his hair.
- Did not take ANY notes or
- had the decency to stop making me uncomfortable while I was speaking (it was sooooo evident on my face)
- If I dint need the job, I would have called him out, called following interview and reported him to the recruiter.
- He asked me the Private Equity question (below).. I gave him the exact answer. His response was “how do YOU know that” and I swear he rolled his eyes. I mean why the heck would you even say that to a person who’s going to work with those specific clients (plus personally I found it to be more racist than anything). I wanted to react and call him out but unlike him I’m a professional so I politely replied “PE is part of core finance and since I studied Finance, I have the domain knowledge.”
- The only time he looked in the camera was when I asked him about his role. In that to he was sooooo generic - I mean I gathered those insights while reading the JD.
I don’t understand why the start-ups don’t give their employees training on conducting interviews and decency.
I wouldn’t want to let my bias for him come in the way but after the interview I read all the comments here and realised most people have had a similar experience so I don’t think the company cares!