Day 31
Had the interview at US Central Credit Union today. Kind of unnerved me a little bit when I walked into the building and the receptionist said, `Are you Ron Nutter?’ Not used to that. I said `yes’ and she said she was going to call a certain person for me. I showed her the instructions I had been emailed that said to contact somebody else.
I next interviewed with the director of the department I would be in. The last interview was with the person that would be my manager. He had come up through the ranks and had been in the position for about a year. We went over the on-call schedule, how things would be handled for training, etc. One interesting things was that I was asked the exact technical question that the group of three had asked me earlier. It was a 5-part question that I missed two parts on. Since I had the same question again, I was able to give all 5 answers. Will be curious to see if they compare notes to see if I picked up on that little detail. Won’t be able to get the answer to that question unless I am offered the job.The last stop on the interview trail was to sit down with the HR manager to go over the benefits package. He had a brochure for me that pretty much repeated what was on their Web site but went into a little more detail. The 401K plan is better than I have seen at other places. It was nice to see a place where I would be on their insurance policy from day one instead of the 30 to 60 day wait that I have been seeing elsewhere. I was told that they hope to make their decision by the middle of next week. Didn’t sound like they were going to do a second round of interviews.Had an interview this morning that Kevin Matheson at Technisource had arranged. Walked away from that very dissillusioned. It took me 45 minutes to drive to the interview location and the interview lasted less than 20 minutes. I had the same experience this time that I had on the phone interview. I sat down with two people. Each of them asked a couple of questions and then looked at each other and asked did the other have any questions. The questions I was asked were not anywhere near as technical as I had experienced on other interviews. I got the impression that they really didnt know what they were looking for. They may have been a little surprised how much I knew about their company and the customer I would be working for – that they were in bankruptcy, amount of debtor in possession financing, amount of secondary credit line, etc.Had another interview in the afternoon with Aplus.net. I was given a stack of papers to fill out before the interview. Was a little concerned about being asked for my drivers license and Social Security number without an offer even being made or on the table. Made a note on the forms I would be glad to provide this is an offer was made but due to a previous employer having publicly released my Social Security number, I dont give it out unless an offer has been extended. The HR person kept coming out before the interview started and was telling me this person would be there, this person would be there, I would go here or there for the interview, etc. In going through the interview, they asked questions about specific features of Asterisk or add-on modules that I had never heard of before. Pretty much told me that I wasn’t qualified for the position. I can do it but I dont have the skillset they are looking for. They were nice during the interview, but I think we both realized that HR shouldn’t have brought me in.I was approached by another recruiter at Tri Com Technical inquiring if I was still available and if I was the same person that they had in their database because there was a different address. They asked where I stood in the interview process, I reviewed what I had done so far. They expressed concern over the interview I had been on through Technisource. They had other comments made to them about internal issues within the company and that those doing the interview didnt seem to know what they were interviewing so far. The recruiter I talked to was going to be out with clients that afternoon but committed to calling me the next morning with one possibility and probably two depending on what she found. Will be curious to see what she can come up with.Nothing new on the job boards today.–
Within a couple of minutes, the person I was told to contact was in the lobby and escorted me into the building. My first stop on the interview process was a conference room where I would spend the next hour and a half fielding a series of questions from the three engineers that I would be working with. I was asked a series of Cisco, Microsoft, PBX and unrelated questions. Sometimes I gave the answer that they were looking for and others I gave an answer that was different from what they were looking for, but still answered the question.
His questions weren’t as technical in nature but were looking at things from a different perspective. One question was, “What is an ACD and how would you use it ?” Fortunately I had worked with one on several occasions and had started to set one up on my Asterisk PBX that I have my Cisco IP phones on at home.
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Day 32
