Applied online. HR rep email reply. Manager phone screen. Onsite interviews for two separate positions on the same day.

The interview was softball. It was my understanding they were coding positions, yet I wasn't asked to demonstrate any coding skills other than critique a printout of code known to be defective and in a language they didn't even use. I've been a developer for more than two decades and have participated in numerous interviews on both sides of the table, and that is quite bizarre.

The people were generally nice, and there were signs of intelligence, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of bad vibes among the staff. Also unusual was that I repeatedly asked the interviewers to describe the jobs I was interviewing for, and I couldn't get anyone to pin it down with any specificity, as if it wasn't a particular concern. I never actually understood the responsibilities of the roles I was interviewing for.

I give the experience a thumbs down because, to top off the strangeness, I never heard from them again. There was zero follow-up. Five days later, I even sent an email to the HR rep who had organized the interview process to simply ask if I was still a candidate for either position. There was no reply to that. Stone cold silence. Really? That is highly unprofessional and frankly unconscionable treatment, even if these were intern or junior positions, which they weren't.

I regret getting involved with them now because I had pushed out another interview to make room for this one, since I had a greater interest in it. But by the time I concluded that I was never going to hear from Dell again, the window of opportunity for the other job had closed.

I'm left with no reason to consider a job with Dell again, as I have no desire to associate with an organization that behaves so unprofessionally. The experience has certainly changed my opinion about the company as a whole, which was very positive prior to this.

Describe something you didn't like about a previous project.

Yes, I was actually asked that.