My first interview was a phone interview with the hiring manager, and the a few members of the team. He was very friendly and asked general experience questions based on my resume. He also gave me good insight into the company and expectations of the position. One particular thing he made a point of mentioning a few times is that this position is not a 'head down and code' position, which I will get to later. The rest of the phone interview was with members of the team. They asked about my experience and the usual stuff. It all went very well.
I was selected to come in for a face-to-face interview and meet the team after a week or two. I flew down and met the HR rep for the team for 30 mins. She was very kind and gave me a lot of good information about the benefits, etc. It was a very productive discussion. Then I met the hiring manager in person for 30 mins. It, again, was a very good discussion and very productive. I felt I was a direct fit for the job. He again mentioned that it was a position that was not a 'head down and code' job. So I made sure to mention, and even emphasize, my skill set beyond just coding. My current position and the position at Oxy require a lot of same skills. Organization, communication with non-technical departments, architecting, etc. The last 30 minutes were with two team members. There was a lot of discussion about my current role and skill set. Again I mentioned a bit of my non-development work as well just because this seemed to be an important facet of the role. I left very excited and looking forward to hearing back.
Well, the hiring contact told me everything was great and went very well and I should hear something soon. After a week passed, I contacted him again and he said they were just having trouble sitting down for a meeting to discuss the interview. Then another week, and another, until it had been two months since the interview with no feedback. I was told everything was great and they really liked me. Then, finally, I called one last time and was told that they had offered and hired someone else that day. They said the team had the impression I was some sort of manager and not a hands-on developer. They had been worried about for two months but never thought to ask me, or have another interview for clarity, or anything. It was extremely disappointing as the signals I got from the hiring manager was that this was a job that required more than just development, so I made sure to emphasize I can do the soft side as well, yet I was not offered because I emphasized it enough that it made them wonder. Very strange. My resume is full of current development experience. And none of these concerns were communicated to me during the process. Just a very odd and disappointing process for a position I felt was a great fit for everyone.
I really enjoyed meeting everyone and they all seemed like very good people, but there seemed to be some obvious communication issues.