I was interviewed by the client to see if Photon would hire. Basically this company makes 0 money in the US other than contracts they have with clients. Usually they know someone in the company and get on their good side. Promise deliverables but usually don't pull through. Walgreens was the client and was interviewed for a Java position.

Got a call through a referral from an employee. The recruiter called me and set up a phone interview at a time of my convenience. I never got the info on who the interviewer would be - so I did not get a chance to find out information about the person via linkedIn or other social n/ws. I do this so I know the background of the person interviewing me - this helps me to be better prepared. Nevertheless, I was expecting the phone interview to be based on my experience, core CS fundamentals and some coding or problem solving (like most first phone interviews are). I got the call at the scheduled time and the person speaking to me had a terrible English accent (he was definitely not a native english speaker - this made communication difficult). He only gave me his name and didn't really seem keen on introducing himself or the team he was a part of. It seemed like he was not really interested in interviewing me (he seemed to be fulfilling some obligation, than actually evaluate my skills) What made it worse was - the shocking surprise I received when the interview questions were not at all about core CS fundamentals or problem solving. There was no coding involved. I was asked academic questions for which answers would be available through a Google search or in text-books. Here are a few that I remember - 1. Explain the steps to configure HTTP on Apache Tomcat 2. List the various protocols used in SOAP 3. Explain how to write a basic SOAP HttpRequest 4. What are the various capabilities of Spring Framework? 5. What is the difference between ArrayList and Vector? 6. List the procedure to debug a deadlock in Java I was taken aback by most of these questions. I could only provide answers based on my experience in using the technologies to all these questions except for the ArrayList vs Vector question (which also was from experience, but I felt I knew it well). Yes, I know all these questions have answers in textbooks and the internet. But, these are not questions you expect in a technical phone interview (at least not the first round). I never got a feedback from either the interviewer or the recruiter. Like, I said above, the guy seemed least interested in interviewing me. After about 45 minutes, he suddenly asked me if I had any questions for him - I asked him what team he was a part of and what would the next steps be - and he didn't really seem interested in answering as all he said was "I'm a software engineer here and the recruiter will let you know if you are selected". All the best to anyone else who interviews with this company - I hope others get a better interviewer - who provides decent feedback.