I wasn't going to write a review, to be honest, but having read the review another person wrote, I was utterly shocked at how two experiences could be interpreted so differently! So I thought I’d share my view on the process.
After I had applied, there were two stages to the interview. The first was a phone call, which lasted about 45 minutes. Ranjiv came across as very pleasant, he asked why I had applied, and why I had followed up with the application, and then went through some of the answers I had given on the application form. It was a good chat, the only down-side I would have said, was the salary conversation, where it would have been nice to have an idea of the band they were offering rather than having to give a wild guess. Bearing in mind this was quite a while after I had initially applied, I couldn't remember what was on offer.
The second stage was the face to face interview. This went on, as expected, for 2 hours and was completely unconventional as I ended up taking the lead for the first half of the interview, which I quite enjoyed. I had come with a list of my questions for Ranjiv and for the team, and he decided we would go through my questions first and then see what else he had to add to it. I found him open and honest. The team (3 other team members were there) seemed relaxed and friendly.
One of my questions to the team was what was the worst thing about working there, another was what is it like to work for Ranjiv? Both times I got straight answers, no flinching from the team, no quick looks at Ranjiv to see what he thought about the question or the answers. And Ranjiv himself looked genuinely interested in what they were going to say.
I queried all the Glassdoor reviews (like the previous poster said - they are not the best reviews) and asked for the truth of the matter, which I believe I got. The atmosphere was quiet and respectful – as expected during an interview, I didn’t sense any tension. The only down-side to the whole office being open-plan, was that I didn’t get to see his colleagues interacting as they would if we couldn’t hear them. They were obviously quiet and realised that we were in an interview, so there was no scope for me to see how they would be on a normal day.
As for the relevance of the questions… Politics had come up in the online questionnaire. I don’t discuss politics, and that’s pretty much what I said. I found that Ranjiv’s reaction to what I said was good, he seems logical and is definitely easy to chat to. Religion came up too. In my current role we discuss kids, families, friends, religion, and anything that goes through our heads, and I am comfortable with that. If the place I am going to spend 8h/day for the next couple of years (or more) is a place where I can only discuss work and nothing where a debate could follow on … then I’m not sure that would be for me.
