Signals that this web manager position you’re interviewing for might not be a good idea:
- The receptionist gets up to help you out of your jacket and hang it up for you, but doesn’t lead you to the office for the interview. Instead, she tells you to head to the first office on the left past the copier. (She already paged the interviewer, who has apparently chosen to remain at their desk.) The office is only 40 feet from the front door.
- Your interviewer is the VP of Finance and Administration and the CFO (one person).
- You’re asked if you do print design, because some print designers “don’t like” doing web design, and vice versa, but they are looking for a “well-rounded” designer who will do both.
- You’re told that they are fortunate to have a full-time IT guy on staff (but he’s not in this interview).
- The interviewer keeps direct eye contact 95% of the time either one of you is speaking. (Awkward.)
- The interviewer uses Google to find one of the organization’s microsites.
- The interviewer mentions two or three times that “we’ve interviewed some good candidates” and flips through all their resumes underneath yours on the desk.
- You’re given an assignment to complete on your own. The instructions ask for two mock-ups: one of a single-page microsite (may be a .jpg comp), and one of a companion print piece (8.5″x11″, cover and one interior page) for one of their new campaigns. You can use Lorem Ipsum for the text, since you’re not the content writer, after all. There are also four questions you should be ready to answer when the assignment is submitted, including how much time you spent on each part, your philosophy of microsite design, your opinion of the most important elements in a web site, and which design aspects of this assignment you found most difficult.
- You ask if there is a deadline when they’ll make a decision. The interviewer says that they hope to make a decision by the end of next week. Oh, so, could you have the assignment back by the middle of next week, then.
- The interviewer thanks you for coming in, but doesn’t get up. After a couple of awkward moments, you tuck your papers away, which seems to remind the interviewer to emerge from behind the desk and shake your hand.