Job 3: When they fly you interstate for a video interview

Job 3: When they fly you interstate for a video interview

I am just back from a day trip to Sydney having taken a third interview with Company L Investment team. Although the experience with Company L could have potentially been worse if I hadn't had the support of a wonderful head hunting company to dampen the interaction with HR, I am tired from being asked to jump through hoop after hoop after hoop. Unlike, Le Bron James at Miami, my hoop jumping seems to have no end in sight, which is the reason that I have started writing this blog, just to restore some perspective and to share the humour in this situation.

The Job:
The job is very similar to what I was doing at Company S - putting together investment deals for infrastructure projects - working from the development stage through qualification, Consortium Agreements, financial modeling, debt and equity financing, bid tender, and all things going well, financial close.

The Process
Screening -> Interview 1 (Project Director Melbourne + HR) -> Interview 2 (Executive General Manager Sydney + Manager Melbourne) -> Exam -> Interview 3 (Senior Project Director Sydney + Project Director Sydney)-> ??? -> Offer

I was first screened for this job in early June, 2010. It is now mid-July, 2010. You can understand why I may be mistaken for thinking that this process is taking an excessive amount of my time and energy. I am no 300 thousand dollar signing, yet considering the amount of proprietary knowledge and experience I am bringing from my last job, my significant academic experience, and my glowing references and strong track record in this industry (My team won our last bid tender, a 500 million USD package in Bahrain), can I be excused for feeling slightly bemused by the breadth of this process? Without wanting to sound like the wanker I surely am for writing this tripe, I have enjoyed the interviews with Company L... what has me rolling my eyes and writing this post is what happened at interview number 3.

I take a mid-morning flight across to Sydney, take the subway across town and find a place called Chatswood. The whole way across on the subway, a group of Korean ladies sat in the 4 seat 2 aisles up, rattling away as if they owned the whole audio sensory capacity of the carriage, and I had to do a double check to make sure that I was actually still in Australia. I had a coffee to kill the extra 30 minutes before the 4pm interview, vicariously took in an important lesson in that after lunch, a cafe worker should move all of the unsold drinks in the cooler fridge to the front window position (doesn't this make sense?), and headed up to the 8th floor. I am processed by the secretary, sit around in the foyer, and get to thinking about what this fuss could all be about.

Theoretically, having met the executive General Manager in round 2, having completed the personality testing exam, one could hope that it was deal time, or at least a chance to talk starting dates. Last of all, being flown up to Sydney, one could be excused for thinking they would be meeting people face to face. Well, imagine my surprise when it was not the deal breaking meeting with HR, when it was not the discussion on starting date, but was a video conference call with 2 senior managers, emulating the first round interview screening that had already taken place - yup, same questions, same answers. I think there was a movie with Bill Murray and Andie Macdowell that explored this topic in much better detail than this blog ever could.

I know what you are thinking. Not exactly the same thing as what I was thinking.
Perhaps if they had allowed me to have video taped my first round interview in Melbourne, I could have saved some time. You on the other hand, being full of pragmatism as are all of this blog's readers, were saying: "be reasonable, you've done it before. It's just a chance to do things even better." Well, I have checked the Job Seekers Almanac 1980 through latest edition, and as a whole there is not a reference as to what one should do in the case that they proceed through a course of identically minded interviews. The second time around I was a little bit more unsettled. Do these guys know I have passed through 2 rounds and a test already? So I actually found myself paraphrasing my first and second round interview responses - "and as I said to Peter in Melbourne; James said this in Melbourne, does it apply to your team here etc". Does anybody know if this is the right thing to do? Until we have answers, I can only be left to assume that there is no right or wrong, just feel your way in the dark, and hope to make it to shore.

TO sum up: Yes I had. I had just flown to Sydney expecting to close the deal and had been greeted with a video conference call..