I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Patterson Companies in Jan 2024
Interview
To be clear, I withdrew from the interview process before the opportunity to receive an offer.
Very standard to start - began with a recruiter call, a chat with the hiring manager, and then two panel interviews with two people each. Questions were very standard for a Product Management interview, tied to how I manage stakeholders, challenging situations, failure, etc.
One of the panel members (the president) didn't show up to an interview, but the interview proceeded anyways. I then did another panel interview the following day.
The individuals that attended the panel interviews were excellent. They were very engaged, asked me intentional questions, and provided very thoughtful answers to my questions.
After two business days of no additional confirmation or follow up, I reached out to see if the process was complete or if I was still waiting for more interviews to be scheduled. I was told that everything was wrapped up, and given a date to expect a call with a final decision.
That same day, after working hours, I received emails from both the recruiter and the president who missed the interview. The president didn't apologize for missing; he simply asked if I could make a meeting work the following early morning or early afternoon. The recruiter did apologize for being incorrect in his email regarding my progress though, and clarified that I was done after this makeup interview.
During the makeup interview with the president, he ended the call by letting me know that there "might be more people looking to do last minute interviews" but that I should be "excited because that means I'm moving through the process." He also did not apologize for missing the call with me.
Sure enough, about an hour or so later I get a follow up email from the recruiter saying that the VP of product wanted to meet with finalists to make a decision -- and asking if I could meet with them at the end of the day or the following afternoon because they wanted to make a decision before the weekend.
This level of last-minute requests caused me to withdraw from the process.
After communicating in more specific detail how the process made me choose to withdraw to the recruiter, the president did send an email apologizing for not best representing the organization.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Describe a time where you didn't deliver a product as expected, what happened and how did you pivot?
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