7y
I’m the Axon team member referenced in your review and want to sincerely apologize for your experience. You called out a series of missteps and they are completely my fault.
Every role on our team is critical, and I do my best to meet promising candidates in person whenever I can. I consider recruiting to be one of my most important responsibilities. So even though your feedback surprised me, I’m grateful you took the time to give me this candid reaction to your experience so I can do better.
I want to share a few notes specific to your experience.
I was visiting our Seattle office on a day when our recruiting coordinator was out of town. So, I prioritized meeting you face-to-face over the typical white glove treatment our recruiting coordinator provides. It turns out I was a poor substitute for her.
To your point of seeing one female at the early hour of our meeting, I want to reassure you that we currently have 58 women in the Seattle office. Axon continues to support women in tech by participating in the annual GraceHopper conference, hosting quarterly representation events, and sponsoring groups such as Women Who Code and WomenHack, as well as through our internal Women at Axon affinity group.
Regarding the presentation portion of the interview process, we strive to assign a balanced task with reasonable time expectations. The presentation is solely to give the candidate control to showcase their thought process, ideas and reflections. We don’t use the ideas for any purpose other than assessing specific skills of a candidate. I apologize if this was not thoroughly explained to you beforehand.
When I interview, I have a working document open on my laptop with questions, and I take detailed notes throughout. Typically, I let the candidate know that I’m taking notes so they don’t think I’m multitasking. I want to assure you I was very engaged in our conversation even though I didn’t appear to be. I’ll consider a different approach to this going forward.
Anyway, I’m grateful for your feedback. I will take these insights and work personally and with my team to make sure we don’t have a confluence of missteps happen like this again. I wish you all the best in your job search and your future endeavors.