First of all, candidates applying for a position in a multinational like TI should be ready to deal with employers that are mean and that will threat them without consideration of their aspirations, their needs and the effort they are doing to apply for the interview.
These employers have many candidates applying for the same position; so they give to each candidate just a chance to get that position. A candidate could be the best one on the market, but if for some reason he fails in giving them all the informations needed to suggest them his excellence, they won't give him a second chance to communicate them what he forgot to say or what they misunderstood.
This is my terrible experience. My description could be helpful to show to other candidates the successful attitude during interviews.
I had a first phone interview (1hour), mainly technical, with some basic questions; I was applying for a new-graduated role, despite having 2 years of experience.
The next day they told me that they needed me at their site in order to continue the selection. They wanted me there in 4 days, because they had an urgent need to conclude the selection.
Being a worker, I could not take more than 1 day of holiday with such a short notice.
I kindly accepted to meet them during a day that was most comfortable for them, but not for me.
It seemed that it could be a great opportunity. I refused another interview, which should have had the priority; I planned all the travel during the night, since they needed the travel details in 1 day (I had really a hard time answering to all their e-mails at work!) and I travelled during late evening by car, so that I would have lost only 1 working day. 13 hours of travel in 1.5 days; exhausting!
The interview lasted 6 hours, all in a foreign language. I had 3 easy technical interviews; the questions were really superficial and they were not testing my knowledge extensively. Then 1 interview with HR and 1 with the manager.
The first thing that surprised me bad was the fact that in their announcement for the position they wrote that their group was working in the design of several different macros; almost everything an analog designer can desire. When I spoke with them instead they admitted that they had the possibility of designing only a very limited type of blocks.
I was there to gain informations to understand my motivation for the position, since everything evolved so fast that I couldn't have time to consider the offer more seriously; so I thought that it would have been kind if I didn't do everything to convince them to choose me.
Unluckily this is a weak point that managers and HR always try to find out. I didn't think that they would have been so blind to give so much importance to this interview.
2 days after my interview, they started to publish their advertisement on other websites.
After a couple of weeks from the interview I was not receiving an answer for the results. This surprised me, because they forced me there in such a short time. I contacted them and I received a first answer; they said that my technical knowledges were impressive, but they disliked my excessive dedication to work.
This is a misunderstanding they had. I still remember the amazed face of the interviewer that asked me this question. He did not even try to understand the reason of such a great dedication.
I work between 10 and 15 hours a day. Being a consultant for a small company, I'm always inserted on several projects that are beyond my knowledge, without support. In order to conclude what I'm given, I need to invest much of my time to learn my job by myself.
All my colleagues are satisfied with my responsability. But, for some reason, the interviewers thought that I have a lack of interest for my life and a selfless dedication.
I was not allowed to communicate them that they were wrong and I could not establish another contact with the interviewers. This hurt me bad.
After 5 weeks from the interview I read on their website that I had been discarded, even if the position was still open. The next week they changed the position from “New-Graduated” to “Experienced”. After 3 months the position was still open.
Afterall, they really needed a designer in a short time!!!
TO TI EMPLOYERS: try to understand who you need before asking people to run at your place and don’t rush into superficial conclusions. TI may be the biggest microelectronics company, but it’s not the only one. There may be other companies where designers work in a more challenging environment than yours and have different working habits that shouldn’t be despised.
