Recently interviewed for the Sr. TPM role at Seattle, WA. The overall process took 2 weeks starting with Phone interviews. 2 Phone screens went well, invited for an Onsite with in a week. The Recruiter was very prompt until onsite interview.
The interview panel had 7 people each having a round of 45 min and 1 hr lunch interview with the Hiring manger. Here are the bullets from the interview:-
1. For Sr. TPM role, 2 interviewers were TPM i.e. Jr. to the role I was being interviewed. Not enough Sr. Architect people who could evaluate real solutions I suggested.
2. Being Technical Architect, I did very well for the design questions asked. However, not sure what the interviewers were expecting since I did not hear much cross questions on the designs. Everyone agreed to what I suggested.
3. Most annoying part, EVERYONE was just "quoting" on their laptops every word out of my mouth. It is so ridiculous to have the person in front not giving any reaction to the answers except for typing and typing and typing... Didn't feel anyone tried to understand the logic or approach, just the words. In short, if they typed it right you have a chance to get the job and may be this is the the reason 2 out of 10 (read somewhere in the reviews) onsite get an offer.
4. Most of the questions were around "deadlines, delays". I told them if business and IT are in sync with expectations i.e. priorities are synced at the Leadership/Org level then you would not have such a situation where everyone is trying to push their Request in. The answer can not be, "I as a program manager will push the envelope for the teams to deliver whatever I am requesting, either hiring more resources or asking for longer hours at work". To me, this could be one time solution(exceptional cases) not a sustainable model since problem lies at upper level vs. fixing at PM or team level. So, not sure how interviewers read it, given none from Management/Business was present.
5. I was promised to hear back from them Monday of following week, no response until Wednesday when I sent an email stating I am passing this position.
6. No attempt to sell this position.
7. What I liked, people were nice ignoring their typing skills :)
