I had originally applied for this position almost 2 months prior to being contacted. The opening few conversations were with a 3rd party recruiter. It mainly revolved around getting a 10,000 foot view of my experience, salary expectations, etc. Pretty standard stuff. She liked me and said she would recommend I move to the next step of the process.
One thing to note is that Honeywell ACS was below average in responsiveness. Considering the snail's pace a typical HR department can have, it is telling when I can single one out as even worse in this respect. Even the recruiter seemed to be a little frustrated about getting information on next steps. I had called her a couple of times to follow up with her about a week after my initial phone screen and she didn't have any clear updates for me because she was still waiting on the hiring manager. Needless to say, this is a bit of a red flag for me in terms of how their overall company culture might be (i.e. slow moving and not very good communication). It did not reflect well on whether I may like the job as I can't stand poor communication. After a few weeks, the recruiter finally got back to me and said the hiring manager wanted to do a phone interview with me.
In the phone interview, the hiring manager asked me general questions about my background and then asked a few position specific questions to see if I had a grasp on some of the job's tasks. She apparently liked my answers because she decided by the end of the conversation that she wanted to meet me in person. We set up a time for me to interview on site.
My on site interview at Honeywell pretty much took up an entire morning. I met with 5 people. The people I met were the hiring manager, a person I would be supervising, a person from HR, and two other people that I would have some functional interaction with. Each interview was conducted differently. With the exception of the hiring manager and the HR person, the interviews were rather informal (general "get to know you" questions).
The hiring manager read questions off of a script and wrote down responses. I felt like an athlete being interviewed by the media as opposed to a 1 on 1 conversation. This led me to believe the manager was a bit "green" to interviewing people. The questions were almost entirely behavioral based so as long as you can relate some of your past experiences to them, you should be fine.
The person from HR was the worst interview of the bunch. This individual came across very heavy handed and not very pleasant. Being asked why I left every job in my past in a rather gruff tone was a turn off. I expect those questions but not in such a gruff manner. I also didn't care for how I was asked about my prior salary. I expect the question but it came across as a demand more than anything. The interview with the HR person reminded me a bit of a Hollywood movie police interrogation scene where you are sat under a hot, bright light in the middle of a dark room and grilled for information. Not pleasant.
Once the morning was over, the hiring manager told me that the hope was to make a decision within a week or so. If I had any questions, I was asked to contact them. I followed up a week later by Email to see if any progress had been made on a decision and guess what? I received no response. I guess I should have seen that coming given how the early stages of the process went.
At this point, I haven't been informed of whether a decision has been made but I'm assuming that they went with another candidate (I believe it was down to me and another person). Then again, maybe they are going to wait another few months before making a decision. It'd fit their M.O.
Honestly, if I was offered the position, it wouldn't be a slam dunk that I'd say yes. The money would be great and the experience would be valuable too. So I would probably say yes. But at some point you also have to weigh whether the culture is going to make you happy too. I'm not sure I'd be a fit given the experiences above. Communication is far too important to treat it in such a shoddy manner.
Beware when interviewing here. Maybe your experience will be much better but I wanted to be thorough and honest about what I experienced first hand.
