Was referred by an employee. A recruiter contacted me and the initial phone screen was about 30 minutes and very engaging.
The next step was a call with the hiring manager. Call was about 30 minutes and while the interviewer was nice they were short on specifics of the role. A lot of repetition of "diversity initiatives," but little actual detail of what the starting point, and outcomes for the role would be.
Next step was an onsite in Redmond. The odd part, is that while making travel arrangements for the interview through the user portal, the system told me I had not been selected for the job. I mentioned this to the recruiter and they said to ignore that. I had a bad feeling about it.
In Redmond I met with five people, and they seemed to be the only ones in the office in that group, that day.
The interviewers had their own private offices and I was walked from one office to the next after each concluded. Each time I entered an office it seemed I was interrupting them, and two didn't bother turning on the light, so we sat and "talked" in the dark.
They were nice, and very practiced interviewers. There was a lot of repetition of the importance of "diversity initiatives" but little on concrete actions in place currently, or what they wanted to do differently. I got the sense it was mostly a buzz term.
Confirming that perception was learning, the group was being lead by a white man who said he didn't think the diversity problem was solvable, because it is a numbers game, and there aren't enough diverse candidates in the pool of talent. My questions are: "Why not tie compensation of all employees to actions that improve diversifying the pools? How many teach computer science at a high school? How many are involved in student groups at their alma mater? How many offer projects or tutoring to underrepresented groups? Why is this just a buzz term for HR?"
Reward what you want repeated. Tie compensation to action and it will change things.
However, as interesting as the diversity challenge is, nobody spoke about the specifics of the role. That made it apparent I was being interviewed, but not considered.
