I applied online [Glassdoor] and received a phone call and e-mail from the H.R rep to schedule a phone interview. The interview date was then re-scheduled arbitarily and they seemed to think I was sat around waiting on them, with nothing to do, and ended up being interviewed by someone who wasn't originally scheduled to interview me [a PM, instead of 2 Senior PMs originally scheduled]. They didn't even bother to notify me of the change, as I had done my research of the other two seniors PMs and couldn't have done so with this new person. Obviously, for someone at my level [Lead Cost Estimator], I understood what such dismissiveness, implied in the last-minute change, meant so I didn't approach the interview with any seriousness from that point on. My discussions with the PM revealed a serious lack of understanding of what a Senior Estimator should be doing, on his part, although my research showed he'd been with Gray for over 19 years and has been in charge of estimation for a long time. From what he described of the role they actually needed a Project Estimator, not a Senior Estimator. A Senior/Lead Estimator has supervisory and training duties but this role wouldn't have it and the successful candidate would have to prepare MS Excel estimates from scratch each time, with "support" from the PMs, architects and engineers. I asked about the use of a more standardized cost estimation platform and database such as RS Means CostWorks, Timberline, and the interviewer claimed they have found them, especially RS Means, to be unreliable and unrepresentative of costs on the ground and so they preferred to receive quotes from subcontractors instead, no independent estimate necessary. I found this interesting as it is common practice to have an independent estimate to compare returned subcontractor bids to and to ensure that activity costs are not missed by bidders and an inadequate bid accepted, with the omissions causing problems at the construction services/management stage i.e. change orders and adversarial relationships. I wasn't surprised at this though as most estimators in the US are either construction/project management graduates, engineers or architects who don't really understand the science and art of it all, unlike in the United Kingdom, anglophone African countries, Australia, etc where Quantity Surveyors [Estimators] receive specific training in estimation. I got an e-mail from the HR rep the Monday following the Friday interview claiming they had decided to go with other prospects, even though she claimed at the interview they weren't going to be making a decision on a shortlist of candidates to interview at their office until the next Friday, confirming my earlier suspicions of a decision having been made even before the my phone interview. Also, during the interview I asked whether they would consider modifying the role to Senior Project Manager/Estimator so I could undertake PM functions, as at my current company, and partially fulfill requirements for my PMP professional accreditation and the HR rep "suddenly" realized she had originally scheduled a 15-minute phone interview [classic tell-tale sign] and insisted they needed someone to take on estimation for at least 5 years and were not interested in such accommodations. Interesting interview, to say the least.