Hey all, （English grammar is not my strongest suit) – going to be a long one
TLDR; Interviewed with a client/ IT Director, he asked stupid questions and I answered respectufully. he kept challenging me with his BUTS and i told him he didnt know what he was talking about.
Not sure where to post this since theres no such thing as /interviewnightmare sort of subreddit but I wanted to share this experience with you because I was pretty furious and it reminded of why I got burnt out from former employers. Its not the employer perse but its the management.
Backstory:] I was talking to multiple recruiters to find me a new job and I ended up with few interviews and I finally got an offer that I took. My search was over for work but I already gave my word to another recruiter regarding being interviewed by their client and I went along with it. It was too late to cancel.
It was a Zoom interview. Myself, recruiter, 3 IT techs and IT Director (I didnt know he was the IT Director when I was being interviewed since there were no formal introduction). When 5 out of 6 people joined the meeting, we sorta said hello and decided to wait few mins for th 6th man to join. Then out of no where the IT director said “Hey I just got my techs brand new 34inch curved monitors and I get nothing but the best for these guys“. I played along and said “wow thats cool and nice of you“. Note: i didnt know who said that because not all of them had their camers on so there was no face to go with. I found this to be a red flag with the way he said it. To me he sounded like he was power tripping and i didnt think of it much at first until rest of the interview went down..anyways back to interview. Another thing to note, this is a hedefund so many of these guys are making bank and think theyre the shit. Ive worked for one before.
We waited few mins for last person to join but took that person longer so we began the interview. When it began, everybody put themselves on mute except me and one of the IT tech. Tech asked me basic questions: tell me about yourself and what IT stuff have you touched on. Very basic stuff. 10 mins in I explain myself and introduction and all was well. The tech that asked me took my answer and said ok cool. Then here comes the IT director, he unmutes himself and says “hi, so can you tell me about yourself? and have you touched this certain equipment?“. In my head, im like wtf? I just described my experience etc. Anyways, I repeated myself for about couple of minutes and answered his IT questions. All respectfully.
He then started asking more detailed questions about IT Security. Mind you i was just applying for IT helpdesk. While I didnt mind answering them, he kept challenging my answers which is fine. However, he kept sayin BUT BUT BUT, and never acknowledged my answers. So i asked him, how he would handle it. He answered very mediocre. I told him that thats the same answer I gave but shorter. Here are two examples
If a user requests an application to be installed but the HEAD OFFICE disapproves but you need to make sure user is happy. What would you do?Answer: I would give the user FEW OPTIONS to go with so they will be happy because the application they want is not permitted to be installed into our system per IT security policy.
IT Director: NO, first thing is to put this application on test environment and see how it behaves, consult with main head office for approval, if its denied, we tell the user that we can provide alternatives.basically, its the same shit I SAID.
Another question; IT Director: How would YOU know if Mr. Johnson who works for our company is working from and its Mr Johnson that is logged into the system and not his wife MRS. Johnson?Of course this question was really stupid in my opinion so my initial answer was: Well, I wouldnt be able to tell whos logged in at home since I have no visibility. I can tell you that, if Mr. Johnson were in high risk country then we would know by his IP address and I can easily call Mr Johnson if he is in those high risk countries? if he is not, that IP is blacklisted. Typically, orgnaization black list geographically.
IT director; but what if its at his house? how would you know its him or his wife or kids thats not logged in?
my Answer: Well as an IT Tech, it is our responsibility to teach our users not to allow open PC and others to log into company systems. I would not know if its Mr Johnson is logged in at home. We can set extra security measures like 2 factor authentication but I wouldnt be able to tell if its MRS or MR johnson is logged in while he is at home working.
Then he said; Well he have tools like firewalls and security in place like VPN and IP blocklisting method to block his IP address.
I was amazed how much of an idiot this guy was. After 2 more questions with similar answers like above. I was sitll trying to remain professional but could no longer.. I said, “hey Recruiter, i think its best we stop this interview, i dont think this guy knows what he is talking about. Can we just stop?“. One of the other IT tech has his eyes popping out from his head. The recruiter was confused and left himself muted and didnt say anything so I had to sit there and listen to this idiotic IT director saying bunch of stupid stuff. mind you, he had his camera off the whole time.
During the interview, two of the IT techs just nodded their head with my answers.
Towards the end, he asked if i had any questions and i said nope. I thanked everybody and I thanked the IT tech his time.
The recuriter called me few mins after and I asked who was the guy that kept asking me those questions? he said it was the IT director, and I said wow..i definitely would not want to work from him, he doesnt know what he is talking about.
the red flag from beginning i mentioned, only narcisstic boss would say “I get my guys the best equipment“..like thanks boss for giving me the tools to succeed in doing my job.
Please let me know if this is not permitted to post here. and apologize for any english grammar.
PS: this was in Japan, normal for Recruiters to be in the meeting with you during interviews. I passed the Japanese portion with the IT tech who asked me the right questions. The headoffice is in Singapore. I am guessing this IT director is singaporean by the english accent he has and how big head he has. Typically, those guys from Singapore who holds high titles tend to be power tripping (personal annecdotes). One of the reason I acted the way I did was because, I am semi-retired at 31 already and wanted relaxing environment and not hostile. I worked for hedgefund in NYC for few years. The job i accepted was Work from home. Many jobs in Japan are work from home. Not always but many ive seen. this position in hedgefund however is fully onsite. The salary wasnt even all that compared to wfh position that was offered to me.