Initially, there was a meeting with Human Resources. The HR representative was quite friendly. The second part featured a direct interview with the CTO. The CTO was tasked with creating a hypothetical situation for an HVAC company, and then was to prompt me to ask questions and suggest a resolution.
The challenge lay in my experience leading teams of developers and handling client communications, on top of my AI expertise, which meant I was operating from a more advanced standpoint. Instead of complex simulations, the CTO’s intended scenarios were simplified into rudimentary AI automations, easily managed by platforms such as N8N or Zapier. I found the assignment so dull that I courteously said no to doing it at the interview. I apologized, explaining that my development environment wasn’t yet configured. I was appalled to discover that the exciting, complex role I expected turned out to be a singular position focused on individual client management, demanding both business development and technical execution (development and testing).
My closing statement to the CTO during the interview was that my current duties are at a far more advanced stage, with expectations of me handling considerably more complex challenges. Consequently, I questioned him about the job he was interviewing me for, asking if it was like my current role. His answer was no. And that’s about it.
The research material I created was sent to him for his interviews; however, the interview process itself was a disheartening and energy-draining experience.
