I first have to mention how professional and courteous the recruiters were with me, he was truly the best part of the process.
After the call with the recruiter, I was setup for a very deep technical screen with an individual which went very well.
Next was with another individual to test my consulting skills, and again it went very well.
Last was the panel interview which included the presentation, I did the presentation as per the directions I was given, technical, business outcome, approach...etc.
However from the first slide someone in the panel was cutting me off and criticizing me and what I had to say. And when it was my turn to ask questions, he was evasive in answering them and often dodging them. More to say, he didn't even read my resume prior to the interview, which was mind blowing.
I heard back from the recruiter, that the panel didn't like my technical focus and wanted a business focus presentation. With all due respect, the role is for a technical advisor, you get reminded every time that it is a technical advisory role, not a business advisory role. A business person will never last in a technical interview like the one I did where you get to be asked about data normalization, java script, SSL and so on, consequently a technical person will not focus on business focus of the solution being presented.
Having said that, to my amazement the business items I presented are taken directly from the document done by the business people, so what more could I bring to the answer? invent stuff? so no matter how much I try to illustrate the business value, he just doesn't like it.
My advice to the HR people who maybe reading this, here are a few things:
- Jack of all trades is a master of none and if the focus o the presentation should be business then I think it is fair to mention that ahead of time.
- If you are looking for a business advisor, then don't do a technical interview for the role
- If the business focus is a deal breaker as in my case, please have the panel do the first interview so they can decide faster that way
- People who make a few rounds of interviews for such roles aren't junior candidates, they are very senior so ask the panel to do some effort and read their resume ahead of an interview cycle, we are too old to have our time and effort wasted in this manner
It is really a disappointing experience.