Cigital

I applied here in February 2014 for a job that pretty much matched my background 100% (the description said "knowledge of Articulate a plus" -- yep, I’ve got that). First, I had a telephone screening with their HR rep. Upon passing his test, I was granted a telephone screening with the hiring manager. After that, I received an email from the HR rep:

[Name] mentioned he had a good conversation with you and would like to take next steps in having you do a screenshot exercise for him.

 Attached is a doc with a number of screenshots from  our current CBT courses. We’d like to ask if you could pick one screen (or more if they like) and discuss what you might do to improve the effectiveness of the visuals for teaching the concept described. You can just speak to it, or do a sketch, or whatever you like – just looking for a sense of how you would approach this.

Hooray, free work to perform! I always love giving out free design advice...*sigh*. Well, I replied with my design recommendations which *finally* led to my being invited in for an actual real live face-to-face interview. 

I arrived, and noticed that there was no reception area (and no receptionist). Instead, there was a ping-pong table. Oh, dear.

This guy grilled me for over an hour (which included yet another little "test"), and I wondered just what more can I do here to prove I'm not stupid? Finally, he tripped me up (which I'm convinced is what he was trying to do from the start) with one final question, "How do you keep your skills up to date?" 

Question time: How many of you routinely ask your family physician, "Hey, doc, when was the last time you took some medical classes to keep your skills fresh?" How about your mechanic? Or when you call a plumber to unclog your toilet? Right. Here's a little advice: stop asking this question. Not only is it insulting to the candidate, but it makes you sound downright silly.

Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed with my response, the interview ended, and I promptly received a rejection email, "I just wanted to get back with you and make you aware that he has decided to pursue another candidate, who’s background aligns a bit more closely to his needs." Not sure exactly where my background didn't "align" with his needs, but whatever. I concluded that had I been twenty years younger the outcome would have been vastly different here (see Dan Lyons' book "Disrupted" as further proof that professionals over the age of 30 are not welcome in Boston).

(Another word of advice to this company would be to get rid of the stupid ping-pong table and create a proper welcome area for your visitors.)