Initially contacted by a corporate recruiter who left the company in the middle of the process; new recruiter picked up the process a few weeks later. After clearing the phone interview was scheduled for interview in NYC. Strangely enough, they DID NOT PAY FOR THE TRANSPORTATION. I had to be reimbursed afterwards. I didn't want to interview on the day they selected because I had just worked over 24 hours to finish a proposal, and wanted to come in the following Monday, but was told that if I didn't come in for the interview on that day, I would be passed by. To get there on time, I had to fly out at 6:30am, but missed that flight. The 7:30a flight was cancelled, and the 8:30 flight was almost full (I was the last person to board). Vodafone had to work me into the schedule since I missed the first one due to the flight cancellations. NYC was having a 100 degree weather day, I was severely sleep deprived, and it was a pretty miserable experience.
I was brought into the Vodafone office by someone who dumped me in a reception area. The people who were to interview me (the hiring director, the newly promoted manager, and the recruiter) were all at lunch. Once they came in, I immediately felt that I was not their prime candidate... just gut feel. I felt like they had to have 3 interviews to be able to offer to the prime candidate.
They had asked me to do a review of a fictional client's opportunity and make a bid/no bid decision. You had to do a risk assessment and defend your position. The problem was the client wasn't real and there wasn't enough information regarding the competitors (there was a substantial amount of the business on the table that belonged to the competitors, but no dollar amount or line count), the CEO of the client didn't like us, the majority of our business was at risk, and they had already said they would cut 20% of that business, and we had to endure a 20% additional cut in revenue. When I tried to ask questions regarding this fictional client, I was told they didn't know, because it was all a test. Long story short, I said no bid. There was 0 reaction - zip. When I asked what the correct result was supposed to be, they said they had no idea.
The next day, I sent them an email thanking them for the opportunity to interview and their consideration, but apologizing if I seemed a bit out of it, and explaining that my exhaustion stemmed from working extremely long hours that week.
The following Monday, there was an email telling me I wasn't selected, and the reasons why. I was at first taken aback, but realized it was an extremely rare opportunity to be told why. Mostly the reason was that I seemed "confused," which makes sense since I was sleep deprived. I sent an email response thanking them for the feedback and again thanking them for the opportunity.
