Thursday, June 4, 2009

The interview steeple chase

It has been a busy week for my job searching husband.

After about two solid weeks of searching, cold calling, submitting, begging and pleading, the phone calls have finally started to come in.

On Monday he got an interview with a company for a a DBA position in Toronto. He got all dressed up, prepared himself for the uncomfortable onslaught of questioning and judgment that is the interview process, and headed on down to the big smoke.

He made it through that process with flying colors.

On Wednesday he moved on the the next step in the hiring process, and met with a panel of people he would be working with to see if he would fit in. Of course there was be the usual plethora of technical questions.

He nailed that.

They told him they were very impressed with his interview, and thought he would be a good fit personally in their organization. But, he has few more hurdles to jump yet.

The next step is to write a technical exam. If he does well with that, he needs to meet with the Vice President of the company.

I am not sure what the heck they would have him do after that meeting; a little tête-à-tête with Billy Gates perhaps? Organ donation? What?

The problem is that the technical test is supposed to be administered sometime today, and will be timed, but they haven't told him when it is coming, and he has another interview today for a local job. He has to go to that.

The local job is not exactly what he wants, the pay will be a lot less, and is more of a Web Manager role than strictly DBA, but it is local. He is almost afraid that they will offer it to him today, before he has a chance to complete the interview steeple chase for the Toronto job has been completed. What happens if they offer him the Web job on the spot? Or later today? What does he say without pissing off potential employers?

Any thoughts?

4 comments:

Charlie said...

That's a tough situation, especially if they offer him the job on the spot. Obviously the employer wants to get on with it and not waste time. In this case, maybe he could ask them if he can make his final decision before day's end, after talking it over with family. They might understand that. Employers know, or ought to appreciate that an applicant has a priority to find work, and may have a number of options. Besides pay, there is location, time to get to work, and other factors to consider. So if they heard it this way, the web employer might be understanding. Good luck with it.

nadinebc said...

Thanks, I think the plan is to ask for a little time to mull the offer over. My fingers are crossed.

Steve said...

Any recruiting process should allow the potential employee a couple of days to consider the offer. In fact, at my current company, it is policy (I'm not sure if it's law) to accept a signed offer no less than 24 hours after it's been presented.

It would also be highly unusual to be offered on the spot. Most companies would want to check at least one reference before proceeding officially.

Good luck to him and you. Having two offers to sort through is a pretty good problem to have.

nadinebc said...

You are right, no offer.

Not much of an interview either, hardly any technical questions at all which Don found odd.

I was worried he would have to make a decision before he had all the cards on the table, and that is never a good feeling. The technical test from the other company has yet to come in today.

So we could end up with no offers.

gah.