Spoke with a recruiter on the phone. Passed the screen, evidently. Then I talked with the hiring manager for an hour on the phone. Things went well enough for them to offer an onsite visit / interview. At this point, I was excited about the prospect of working at Blizzard since it seemed like there was a real passion for process and project execution. Blizzard also seemed to be a very positive work environment.
Setting up the onsite was difficult as we were approaching the Thanksgiving Holiday but I was eager to move the process forward so I agreed to be onsite the Monday immediately following the long Thanksgiving weekend.
My onsite interview was brutal. 4 hour-long sessions with between 2 and 5 peers or bosses peppering me with questions, tribunal-style. No breaks. Everyone was friendly enough but it was tough to remain focused and energetic throughout. Some questions were repeated many times, but that is to be expected. My final session was with 2 fairly senior employees who asked some really tough questions. I am paraphrasing, but I think it was something like "who is your favorite super hero and why?" I did my best to prevent a visible eye-roll and and tried to answer this seriously. I was willing to go along to see where the opportunity led. I left exhausted, but satisfied with my performance.
The interview was on 11/29 and I was told I'd be contacted with 2 weeks since Blizzard was committed to transparency and providing the candidate with answers as soon as possible. After 2 weeks, I emailed and heard nothing. Then I emailed and called and heard nothing. Finally, around January 03rd, the recruiter returned my inquiry with a vague email about the hiring manager re-thinking the position. I was not told "no" but just asked if I would consider another role. I said I would but again heard nothing in return. Finally, after another 2 weeks of pestering the recruiter, I received a curt email response from the high-level employee that, in effect, I had reinforced their decision. This sarcastic little quip really upset me. Is this how a candidate should be treated? Isn't my time valuable?