First stage interview, asked very easy technical questions regarding SQL and Linux, no problems technically, which I found very strange considering how this is a Senior Role, they didn't really ask or test any of my real indepth knowledge.
Both interviewers were polite and seemed very engaged and interested. Overall I had a positive experience from them.
Seems like they have been trying to hire for this role for some time, but keep changing the job spec as they aren't finding the right candidate, from a technical point of view I met all their requirements and felt the interview went well.
They asked me what I didn't enjoy about my current role, I answered that I didn't like it if i was given a project or a task and then kept getting interupted with other tasks, this is called context switching, I said I much prefer to plan my time and prioritise tasks as this is the most effecient way to get stuff done.
To me this is a very positive trait to have, being able to manage your time effectively and focus on doing and prioritising the tasks you are given instead of constantly context switching between tasks.
You'll find many articles online about how context switching is a bad thing which should be avoided.
However, it seems to them this is a positive trait, and if you like constantly context switching between loads of tasks they seem to promote that.
This is the reason apparently they declined me, they want someone who enjoys context switching constantly. I can only imagine this is because this is a very common thing in their company and they want someone to be constantly firefighting issues, which sounds like it would be incredibly stressful.
The ironic thing is I do a lot of context switching at my current role, but they just didn't ask me about it, or dig in enough, I didn't think that was even a concern for them!
I really hope if anyone reads this from that team, they look up and understand why context switching is a negative thing and its costing time and resources, and you should go about using time more effectively. I think there also maybe some confusion between multi-tasking (a good thing) and context switching (a bad thing).
It would be very useful as-well if the recruiter could of shared more feedback with me. I'm just so confused why they would decline based on context switching alone? Probably the strangest reason for a decline.
