First interview: Met with five different managers in five different sessions over about four hours.
Second interview: Received a tour. Met with four prospective colleagues and had lunch with a dozen prospective colleagues. Also took about four hours.
And the interviewers knew that I was driving from three hours away for both interviews.
They initially made a verbal offer, and upon waiting for a formal offer in writing for about a week, I received a call letting me know they rescinded the offer and were not going to move forward with my candidacy. This was after an interview process that lasted almost two months.
The whole process was hugely arduous on my part, and disorganized on theirs, because I didn't even fill out an employment application, among other things. It felt very bizarre. After meeting all of these people, talking on the phone with them, meeting them in person, literally spending hours with them, the recruitment person called me as he was driving home from work on a Friday to personally say he was sorry that they weren't moving forward with my candidacy. I didn't get a call from anyone else. The reason he gave seemed very bizarre to me, and it was only later on that I realized that the answer he gave wasn't the real reason. The real reason seemed to be that they felt I wasn't going to fit in with a bunch of 50- and 60-year old folksy men and women that make cheese for a living in very rural Vermont. Maybe if I had worn plaid to the interview instead of a suit, and wasn't a minority, I would be working there. But I'm glad I'm not. I've never been treated so disrespectfully during an interview process than when I interview with Agri-mark/Cabot Creamery.
