It began with an in-office interview with the receptionist. Maybe it was just a bad day for her, or maybe it was me, but she seemed a little bored/disinterested in actually getting to know me. Questions were asked in a sort of "check off the list" manner, and then I was asked straight-up to tell her what I know about Carl Fischer Music. I answered as best as I could, but she clearly felt that I should have known MUCH more about the company than I did. Anything I could come up with was just met with, "ok, what else"? That was a little disheartening, and threw me off a bit.
The technical interview came after that with their lead developer. He asked me a few fundamental questions about the language, and gave me a short practice project where I had to build out a PHP form. All-in-all, the tech interview went very well, and I feel that I nailed it.
Days went by, and I didn't hear anything from the company. I reached out to follow up about a week later, and still nothing. Radio silence.
Listen, I get that companies want interviewees to be excited about working for them, and they want them to have done their research. But let's be honest, in the world of tech, it's difficult to do a deep dive into the history of every company you apply to (Carl Fischer Music was one of about 50 places I'd applied to that month). As a developer, I'm interested in building awesome applications, and I was excited to do so in a musical environment (I'm also a musician). But I guess they care more about sucking up.
I feel that modern companies need to stop being so focused on themselves, or at least not expect potential employees to know everything about them. You know what happens when you expect that? You get people that blow smoke up your a** just to get a job.
Also, don't ghost on potential employees after interviews. Have the courtesy of telling them that they aren't the right fit and be prepared to tell them why if they ask. How can people grow otherwise?