Actually, this interview happened in March 2001. A headhunter set up the face-to-face interview, and I showed up at their downtown office. The manager brought a senior consultant with him for the interview. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed to me, and I guessed I impressed him pretty well because, later during the negotiation, they agreed to bump my salary and offer me a VP title. Unfortunately, they had to withdraw the offer three months later due to the merger with JP Morgan. I think, as what always happens in big companies, those lower-level managers were kept in the dark while the major changes happened at the top.