I was referred by a company's employee. This is a contractor position.
A week later, I was put in 1/2 hour technical interview via the phone. The questions included Java multithreading, singleton design pattern, server-side JSP, HTTP protocols, XML, etc.
I then was called in for the face-to-face interview. I was told it was supposed to be group/panel setting, but when I arrived, there was only one person sitting in the conf. room and the other person was on the phone (I guess he was working from home that day!!!). The first face-to-face interview lasted for one hour. They throw more questions on me first (adding cookies, more Java threading, serialization, etc). The guy who was on the phone had very heavy accent, therefore, I constantly struggled with understanding his questions. Next hour, I was interviewed by two engineers from Boston via the phone again. They did not ask any question but asked me if I had any question. I asked them about what project they were working on. How did the product being tested and supported? Most questions I asked were process related. I cannot believe I was the one who tried o fill that one hour. interview.
Finally, I was interviewed with the Director. The first question was "Do you have any Java experience?" I thought "my god, didn't you read my resume? Java was the major programming language I have been developing in the past 12 years" but I answered (with a smile), yes.
Before I left the company, I was told "You will be contacted no matter what".
I have never heard from the company despite I wrote a thankyou email and asked being notified
as soon as the final decision is made. I tried to call again. I got the answer was the decision has not
been made. It hen heard from my friend that they have hired someone else who is "younger".
My conclusion is: they did not want me first place. Because my friend submitted my resume, therefore, they have to do something about it. There was no reason they can reject me, therefore they did not even bother to let me know the decision.