I had a total of three interviews in which I was asked some pretty standard questions about the industry and my years of experience. Since I have several years of experience and have worked for a few well respected architectural design firms throughout my career, I was also able to ask them some of my own questions pertaining to their workflow and some other questions about the programs they use. I was surprised to find out that they actually use some very archaic methods of drawing to scale (if they're actually bothering to draw to scale at all). Also, throughout my years in this industry, I have never heard of drawing dimension lines in Indesign before. The Illustrator CAD plug-in also seems to be a new concept for them as well since they aren't using it at all. That was pretty shocking to hear since the Illustrator CAD plug-in is pretty standard. They also don’t seem to know much about other 3D software programs besides SketchUp or promote education among their staff and encourage interaction within the SEGD. If anything, I felt as though if I started working there, I’d have to begrudgingly dumb my skill level down quite a bit in order to work through their processes.
I was repeatedly asked by multiple people during these interviews if I wouldn’t mind coming to work in their studio for three days (before any formal offer was written). I’ve never heard of doing business this way before, but they told me that this is a practice the ownership on with new hires. Honestly, I was starting to feel a little skeptical at this point, but told them I wouldn’t mind as long as we were in the same ball park regarding salary. I didn’t see a point in coming in for three days to work for them if they were going to present me with an entry level salary offer upon completion of the three days. I asked if they would be able to send me an offer letter in writing prior to the three days, just so that we were all clear about the terms and conditions. They told me they would get back to me about my questions and thanked me for my time. A day later, I received an unexpected phone call from “ownership”. He told me he wanted to offer me a position on the basis that I complete the three day trial period, offered me a salary number (which was considerably low for my experience level but not entry level) and then proceeded to sell me a bill of goods about possibly promoting me in the future. He did not agree to send me any of these terms in writing, it was all word of mouth, which worried me. But, as a leap of faith, I agreed to those terms anyway.
Even though things seemed to be moving in the right direction, I was still feeling skeptical and kept my interview dates with other firms. A few days went by and while I was on another interview elsewhere, I received a call from an “executive” at Dodd and was unable to answer the phone for obvious reasons. She left a flippant voicemail on my answering machine telling me to “call back if I wanted, but they found someone else that’s more in line with what they’re doing.” Confused, I called her back to find out more information on their sudden change of plans. Again, I received what I consider to be a very flippant and snotty response. She told me that’s just how the interview process goes, that they were interviewing other candidates other than me and that they found someone better suited for the position. I guess you could say I was offered a position, and they failed to honor their word. Although they felt the need to smugly lecture me about the interview process, acting as if I had no reason to be surprised that they randomly chose to hire someone else after going back on their arrangement with me, they failed to realize there are also companies other than theirs interviewing their candidates as well! What if I didn’t know any better and canceled my other interviews because I had full trust in their verbal offer? I find this part in particular, to be extremely unsettling and very selfish on their end. It’s understandable that multiple candidates are competing for the same job, especially during Covid. However, it’s completely unprofessional to verbally offer someone a position, agree on a start week and salary and then pull the rug out from under them last minute on a voicemail after they’ve spent several hours of their time with your company in hopes of becoming gainfully employed!
Looking back, I think they found someone who was willing to take that position for a much lower salary than I was, or they might have just decided not to fill the position at all and used the rumor of another candidate as a smokescreen. I don’t think their decision was based on the quality of portfolio pieces or experience. From my observations, they seem to cut costs and corners in any way they possibly can. My closing thoughts about this experience are that if you feel the need to apply here, just know their word can not be trusted. Don’t cancel opportunities you may have elsewhere.