I initially learned of this job from an MRI recruiter. I had a phone screen with the HR manager, who asked general type questions. The topic of 6 Sigma was mentioned several times as was that the senior management had a military background and tend to be opinionated. Of the 37 minutes the phone call lasted, 73% of it consisted of me answering questions, which tells me that at least the HR rep is pragmatic. Despite my reservations regarding 6 Sigma and ex-military types, I agreed to an in person interview. Somewhere along the line, I was told that the salary range was $80-$100 which is right in line with the job and area. On the day of the interview, I arrived an hour early, due to the fact that the recruiter gave me the wrong time. In retrospect, I think this was done intentionally to ensure that I wasn't late, since it was a 45 mile drive in Maryland traffic. Regardless, the HR rep accommodated me, and had me fill out paper work to occupy the time. I was also informed that this was an all day proposition, which didn't do much for me since I was coming off a night shift. At this point, I'm afraid I must be vague to protect the "innocent." Let it suffice to say that one of the managers tasked with interviewing me slipped and hinted at their displeasure with senior management and 6 Sigma. My current employer is still purging the ex-military managers that they acquired in a hiring frenzy 5 years ago, so I was sympathetic to the manager's complaints. My experience with ex-military officers is that they don't transition well into business, due to the fact that they have to deal with real budgets, competition, and efficiency, whereas these are non-issues in the service. Additionally, ex-military, salaried types tend to think in absolutes--everything is black or white, and, unfortunately, most successful businesses live in the gray area. Regardless, I pressed the manager shamelessly and much of what I guessed was confirmed. The plant succeeded despite senior management, not because of it. Also, as most of the world has already found out the hard way, 6 Sigma is a wasteful boondoggle and it's practitioners are consummate BS artists. However, since everything is black and white at Tamko, they don't use the restroom without doing a 6 Sigma study. Thus, I prodded the manager into admitting that they had become proficient in cooking the data to get to the right solution and that 6 Sigma projects had turned into political nightmares and popularity contests. Been there, done that, never again. I didn't stay for the entire interview and begged off with an excuse about the job being "not technical enough." The HR rep was unhappy, but seemed to understand my point about not wasting any more of their time or mine. As for the recruiter, I didn't really care what she thought since I'm certain she knew the place was a train wreck, but kept that knowledge to herself. I am grateful to the manager that had the stones to tell me the truth and hope that they find their way to a better place.