I was reached out to by a recruiter about an open position. After reading the position description, I told her that I did not think I had the amount of experience they were looking for but she insisted that it was fine. She had me apply to the job online and then setup a 30-minute screening call between her and myself. After the screening call she setup another call with the hiring manager that took place the following week.
I spoke with the hiring manager for about 45 minutes or so over the phone. He was very open and honest about what he is looking for in the position and that he has been trying to fill the role for a very long time. He said that he was going to move forward in the process and had the recruiter setup another phone call with a more senior, executive level person.
Two weeks later I had possibly the most awkward job interview of my life. I consider myself a good interviewee - I always do my homework on the company (I read the 10K, research the company history and its products, etc.), practice behavioral-based questions, and write down questions I'd like to ask beforehand. I am a pretty good conversationalist and actually enjoy the interview process as it gives me an opportunity to learn a bit about a company and usually the career paths of different people.
When the call came I answered using my full name, but was just greeted with a "hello" and then a few seconds of silence. So I was forced to say, "is this <insert first name of person here>?" to which she replied, "Yes it is. So I hear you are interested in working for Starbucks, can you tell me why?". No small talk or introductions or anything which caught me off guard.
She asked me two more very abrupt questions, and then she asked me if I had any questions for her. Literally five minutes in and she's already saying she's done without going through any intros, follow-up questions, etc. I asked her what she was looking for in the ideal candidate and she said that she worked in a different department and so she was merely looking for someone who fit the Starbucks 'brand' more than a good fit for the role itself. I asked her a follow-up from a topic the hiring manager and I had discussed and she responded "I'm not at liberty to talk about that" followed by silence.
So this interview lasted 7 minutes at the most - no small talk, no questions about how I even fit the job role or not, and no interest in me or my background. I had no desire to continue after she gave me the cryptic 'not at liberty to discuss' answer to my last question, and I could tell from the beginning that she had no interest in conducting an actual interview. She said someone would contact me one way or the other in a week and said goodbye.
I waited two weeks with no e-mail or phone call from the recruiter, then saw the job re-posted. I e-mailed the recruiter and said I am withdrawing myself from the process whatever they were going to decide to do next, to which she never replied back.
The whole experience has left me with a sour feeling for Starbucks. On one hand, I suspect the executive I was speaking with felt that I was under-qualified the second she looked at my resume and had no interest in speaking with me and viewed the interview as a waste of her time. Or maybe she was just disinterested because I wouldn't have even been working in her department so she could not have cared less about the interview. But I am left feeling confused because I really connected well with the hiring manager and he even said that I was a great fit for the role and wanted to move forward.
I am left feeling that likely both myself and the hiring manager are a victims of a horrible recruiting process - if who he can hire is determined by the veto power of any one individual in a group, some of whom have no understanding or connection to the open position itself, then that is just a plain silly way to hire people. But, silly process or not, the recruiter should have known better if my lack of experience was going to be a hangup for people, as I had originally pointed out to her, because that means I would have never made it through this group decision process in the first place.
Last, if this is how Starbucks executive leadership presents themselves, I am unimpressed with the arrogance. Even if you feel that the interview is a waste of your time, have the decency to at least try and have a conversation with the person on the phone as that candidate may still be interested in working for the company in the future when they DO have enough experience. However, she didn't even bother to try and get to know me or learn about my career, nor did she bother sharing any details about herself. I have no interest working for a company if the expectation is to put the executive leadership on a golden pedestal and they are no longer held accountable for acting professionally or with humility towards others.
