The first two rounds of interviews went well, and my final interview was with the CEO.
The whole interview consisted of the CEO going through every job on my resume. For each job I had listed, he would ask me a default set of questions consisting of what my co workers would say my strengths and weaknesses were and why I left the position.
When he asked me for my weaknesses for each position, he would always take a deep interest in my answers and probe very hard. The follow up questions he would ask about my weaknesses were borderline unprofessional. The kinds of question I feel only a therapist or close friend should ask you.
Any gap he found on my resume, he would immediately ask many follow up questions. “Why was your first job listed here exactly 1 year after you graduated college? Was it because you didn’t start applying or because you did not receive offers until a year after?” “Why did you only work with this company for 6 months?” “I noticed you only worked this job for one summer why didn’t you continue to do it in the other summers?”
His obsession over my weaknesses and desire to know how I performed in all of my previous roles came off as intense paranoia.
As the CEO, I understand that he wants to make sure that whoever he hires is qualified and not likely to be a job hopper. But the whole interview had this vibe of a police interrogation or your overbearing parents asking you to describe in detail where you have been for the past few hours. And it is exhausting and degrading to have to explain every little detail of yourself to a party that has the mindset of “guilty until proven innocent”. While a part of me thinks I could be over reacting, it was only the CEO that made me feel this way. My previous interviewers from this company did not make me feel this way.
I still managed to stay professional and answer all of his questions well. I know I passed because the CEO said that they would need a total of 4 references, 2 being from previous managers, to get the position. So despite the fact I passed all 3 rounds of interviews, he still had reservations and wanted 4 people to vouch for me.
Another Glassdoor review has stated that the CEO was hard to work with, and I clearly saw why in my interview. I got the general vibe that the CEO is paranoid, a micromanager, and has little trust in both potential and current employees. It is the CEO’s behavior that has turned me off from the position, and if he does not change his behavior, he will continue to scare off future talent for his company.
