I applied online through Linkedin. I was contacted the next day by the HR for a in-office interview without any phone screen. Here is what happened on the day of the interview:
- Arrived on time. The HR told me that 2 out of 5 people I was supposed to meet are not available. She asked me about Visa sponsorship and I said I would need one. Then, she went on to talk about the history of the company, mentioned that the company has been around since 1994 and ended her sales pitch by saying: "We fired many of our employees during the last recession, but now we are a growing team". When I asked her how big the engineering team is, she said 20. For a company that has been around for 20 years, that's a really small number. Just indicates that either there is no work that required hiring more people or people just did not want to stay with the company for long term.
- Had a interview with 2 Senior engineers, both have worked in the company for more than 10 years. One of them did not talk much in the interview and was just looking out(weird!), the other had a background in consulting before joining the firm. Asked me all the questions mentioned below. It angered me to a certain extent that after talking for more than an hour, the HR told me they need someone with _recent_ Java experience. I am fine with the rejection if there was a technical phone screen or the HR told me when I applied for the position that they are looking for people with recent experience. Looking at a candidate's resume and deciding if he/she might be a good fit for the role is not rocket science, and a company that has been around for 20 years should know that. It was obvious that even the engineers did not look at the resume. *There was not a single technical programming question that was asked*
