This was probably the strangest interview experience I've ever had. It was so unorganized and they kept rescheduling and I had to keep coming back because people were not aware that they had even been schedule to interview someone.
I also need to note that the "Tech Leader" was so confused about the process and what I was being hired for and even who I was, that I almost walked out right then. It wasn't until I met the team -- the actual workers -- that I decided I should give this a shot.
I was perplexed by the questions from the management and cto. The questions were not only complete irrelevant to the role, but their interpretation of the answers were laughable. I could see what they THOUGHT the answer was supposed to be so I humored them with the common misconception. They were happy about it. When I asked THEM some questions, technical ones, they stumbled a bit, kept talking for a while, and then diverted to talking about the product.
The engineers, scientists were wonderful and asked some relevant questions. Some of them seemed nervous. I immediately felt comfortable with two of them and one was VERY upfront with me about the problems at Smartzip, especially about the technical leadership. This person told me that they just humor him but do things correctly regardless of the misdirection. I was intrigued by this.
