Interviewer took a call during the interview, think I got the ick
Midlevel interview, decently well regarded MM fund in NYC if it matters.
Set up as a 2-on-1, pretty classic good cop / indifferent cop situation, where the former is super encouraging and the latter is slightly more senior and gives you zero emotional feedback. Basically I was in the middle of an answer to the senior guy about the fund and he just…dipped to take a call for 5? Feel like the best parts of my answer happened while he was out of the room and he didn’t circle back to that point when he returned. If it’s not obvious I didn’t really click with him, not that it was cold or antagonistic or awkward or anything like that.
Anyway, doubt I’ll advance further in this process, but is this kind of behavior a good reason for me to have an ick about this firm culturally if I do? The guy could be my boss and idk treating phone calls as military-style fire alarms when you have a 30-45 min calendar blocked out just seems kinda fake urgency vibes.
If they didn’t clearly explain why the call was so important they needed to leave an interview, it’d be a pretty big red flag for me on culture. I think it’s a fair reason to not go further in the process with them.
On the one hand, it was pretty clear that the call was from the firm head / founder and the firm is pretty actively investing at the moment. On the other hand, it's not like the matter was so urgent that the guy was going to work on it for 20 more minutes anyway, considering he returned to the interview...
Feel iffy about this. Recruiting is tight for everyone rn so an offer would be nice, whether to take or to leverage. But I really would have appreciated him just ending the interview and rescheduling entirely, I was fairly thrown off.
I did a superday at one firm and during the case study presentation section the director just scrolled his phone the whole time and didn't even look at me. Would never want to work for a guy like that who can't even be bothered to take an interest in people who travelled to their office etc to interview. Thankfully signed at a better firm.
OP situation update: didn't advance but was told I was "ranked #2" out of the 40 candidates that interviewed. Apparently this 25 minute interrupted call was a final round? Just not a serious fund all around.
Thanks for the update! Similar shit happened to me, the senior guy in a 2 on 1 during my last round was chewing gum open mouthed and on his phone here and there.
Found out months later that the dude ended up hiring his relative or something, lol. I don't think I could have worked for such an unprofessional guy anyway.
Damn dude, hopefully the firm wasn't your top choice. I know of a few non-finance NYC large employers that are notorious for this type of nepotism. I.e. I know someone who was part of the interviewing group for candidates and the 'nepo' candidate moved on to the final round / offer stage even though their initial interviews were terrible.
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