I was interviewed for Disney Interactive Media Group (http://dimg.disneycareers.com/). I had read and heard reviews from a friend who used to work there.

The Technology, Compensation, Rewards, and learning and development prospects are simply excellent. I understand that the employee satisfaction ratio is pretty good too.

The response was quick, as it was an employee referral. The recruiter did not brief me about the role or team. Instead, I was asked to have a conversation (not an interview) with the Hiring Manager the same evening for 15-20 minutes to learn more about the company, team, and role. The Hiring Manager called me in the evening.

He did not introduce himself beyond stating his name. The next question was, "What are you currently working on?" I explained my role, product, technology, and some features I was working on, which took 2-3 minutes. Then, the firing began.

In the next 20 to 22 minutes, he asked me about 35 questions. Was it a rapid-fire round? It was simply disgusting. He hardly had any telephone etiquette. When I tried to answer a question in detail or with an example, he often cut me short, saying, "Leave it" (though I knew what I was talking about).

He remarked that C++ was not an Object-Oriented Language. While trying to explain the pros and cons of Java and C++, he cut me off and asked, "Okay, then tell me the difference between overriding and overloading." He kept throwing questions at me like a rapid-fire round in a quiz competition. None of them were related to data structures, algorithms, or design, unlike regular interview questions.

Midway, he asked, "Do you have any questions for me?" I thanked him for asking and told him I had not spoken to the recruiter and asked him to brief me about the team, technology, and role. His response was, "We work heavily on Java. Everything is on Java, a lot of it." And that is all he said. At some point, I really wanted to cut the call and end it. If he is a Java/J2EE guru, so be it. I was not trying to get any certification here.

One of his questions was, "You have developed on Unix, right? So, tell me the command to kill a process in Unix." I disliked the way the questions were put or even the transition from one topic to another. In short, this was the worst interviewer I have ever spoken to in my 8+ years of development career. I never expected it would be from Disney!

Aside: While interviewing candidates, I have always received guidelines and training from my manager and HR on how and what to talk to a candidate. An interviewer is a representative of the company. In this case, he was a manager. I thought the title came with some respectable qualities and a much better presentation.