I had two onsite interviews at Adobe's Omniture campus in Orem, Utah.

Their site is pretty cool; I especially liked the wall in the lobby covered with plaques representing many of their high-profile customers. It immediately set a tone that they were very proud of their customers, very customer-focused, and serious about delivering great products.

My first interview went pretty well. It didn't seem especially great, but not bad.

A few days afterward, I was invited to come for a second interview with the manager of a software team. I left this interview feeling it went great. I thought I did really well on the technical parts of the interview and that I answered the questions asked appropriately.

The position was described as a Senior Software Engineering position, but they were looking for someone who wanted to move into a leadership role shortly. I assured them this was exactly what I was looking for, so it seemed like everything was lined up well.

At the end of the interview, I asked what the next steps were. The interviewer said he would have a discussion with his boss (who was my first interviewer) and if they liked me, they would have me come back for a couple more interviews with the team.

But then he added that he had some great employees on his team who knew me and had worked with me and were giving me a high recommendation. Based on the interview we'd just had and the recommendations from his team, he already knew he was going to recommend we move to the next step.

I left that second interview feeling pretty confident. I felt it had gone really well. Since I had previously been offered a job at the same level some years before, it seemed likely that I would be able to do well again.

So I waited to hear back from the recruiter who also worked for Adobe in Orem. After a couple of weeks, I followed up with him to ask what was happening. I pretty much figured we would be moving on in the process and was wondering about the delay.

After a couple of tries, I finally got the recruiter to reply to an email. He said they had decided not to continue looking at me as a candidate.

I of course respect their decision, but this really blew me away. I've tried to get a better explanation from the recruiter, but nobody there will tell me what happened.

The recruiter said he'd try to line me up with another group, but that's the last I've heard of him. I know they are still hiring, and I know I am well qualified for other job openings that have come up. I cannot get the recruiter to reply to any further attempts at contact.

Ultimately, I respect their decision, but that decision is completely incongruous with the way the interviews went and with what I was told at the end of my second interview. After coming to their campus on two different occasions and spending time there in interviews, I think I at least deserve an honest explanation of why, after the interviews seemingly went so well, they suddenly decided to look elsewhere.

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