This was my second time interviewing at Acumen. The process was different each time. The first time the process consisted of a phone screen, short online test, and a half-day of in-person interviews. The second time the process consisted of just a half-day of in-person interviews. Acumen's recruiting team is excellent. They are very organized, considerate, and fast-moving. It is a well-oiled machine. I really enjoyed meeting Acumen staff in the in-person interviews. They are great people. Staff participate in the recruiting process because they care who the company employs.

I was initially contacted by a recruiter but a job posting wasn't given. After two conversations I had a call with a technical resource (I believe an architect for the team). At this point the job seemed vague but interesting. I wasn't overly eager about it either, but I decided to see where it would go from there and agreed to travel to their home office for a round interviews. At this point it was still unclear to me the exact position I was interviewing for and after asking for clarification I got a somewhat cagey answer. I probably should have stopped there but my innate curiosity got the best of me. The onsite was cold and impersonal. I wasn't given a tour of the office, an overview of the company, or even some idle chitchat as I arrived. I was offered a drink and put in a room alone. As we walked to the interview room I noticed most of the office was empty. After a short wait a parade of people came in to hurl questions at me, most of the time not taking their eyes off their computer screens. Some of the interviewers appeared unprepared and put off by my presence while others seemed aggressive, like they were trying to trap me. One interviewer kept asking me questions about the wrong hometown even though I clarified twice. I also wasn't given a lot of time to ask questions back to the interviewer. In all these hours I don't think I learned anything about the company, their corporate philosophies and processes, and their identity. I've been on both sides of the interview table and haven't felt this type of antagonism and lack of interest before. I will say, there were some really good technical questions that made me think and I think I handled those well enough; they were challenging in a positive way. However, I didn't come away with a desire to work there or an overall good feeling about the company. Perhaps it was my growing lack of enthusiasm for whatever the job was that put them off or maybe I caught everyone on a bad day but it was one of my stranger professional experiences. It took a few days to hear back and I didn't get an offer. As I mentioned, after my experience I wasn't interested either so it was good to hear the feeling was mutual. I'm still not entirely sure what I was interviewing for so it's hard to know how I didn't fit their criteria, but I do know how they didn't fit mine. I'm sure this company is a good fit for someone. If I could give a piece of advice to the company: if you are going to ask someone to give up a day of time for interviews please take some time to explain why they should work for you, what you have to offer, what position they're applying for and present interviewers to them who appear to be engaged.