The job post was targeting current accountants and CPAs who want to pivot away from day to day corporate accounting duties and work as a consultant in accounting software implementation.
The CEO of the company, Shereen Mahoney, called me for a brief phone interview. She asked me about my background, experience, career goals, and salary requirements. It went well and she sent me an email and asked that I complete a brief “Predictive Index” survey. Basically, the survey asks you to pick some words about how others expect you to behave and then words about how you think you behave. After completing the survey Shereen sent me another email asking me to come into their office for an interview.
When I arrived at 9am there was no one in the office besides the secretary. It seemed as though no one worked there. It was typical office space- a lobby area, two conference rooms, kitchen, and open bull pen/cubicle area. The secretary stationed me in one of their conference rooms which she called the “war room.” Shereen was not in the office yet. In fact she was late to the appointment and I had to wait for about 15 minutes past nine o’clock.
The interview was standard- describe your background, etc. There were no technical questions. Shereen asked how my high school peers would describe me versus how my college peers would describe me. Then she asked me to talk to another member of their management team, Brian Dietz. That interview went well also. Brian tried to have a third member of their management team interview too but he wasn’t available at the time. Overall the interview went well. Brian told me they’d be in touch.
I got the impression that they really liked me and that I’d be a good fit for the position and their company. I couldn’t gauge the company culture as there were no other employees in their office! The position I interviewed for required technical accounting knowledge which I had (about 8+ years of management accounting experience), and knowledge of certain accounting info system software like Intacct, and Microsoft GL, which I did not. However, they made it clear that the technical accounting knowledge is more important and they would provide software training.
Shereen contacted me the following week and asked me to come in for a second interview. I returned to their office to meet with the Ops Director, Matt Rowley. Again, the interview started off with explain your background type questions. However, as soon as I started talking Matt’s body language was not welcoming. He seemed very uncomfortable with me. I was making eye contact when talking but noticed that he was looking back at me with a squint in his left eye. The eye squints happened throughout the interview. This was not an eye condition or due to bright lighting in the room. In body language psychology, squinting or narrowing the eye orbits indicates discomfort, stress, evaluation and even anger. If you get squinted eye expressions right after you say something it could mean that the person doubts your words, disagrees with you or doesn’t fully get your meaning. This is exactly the kind of eye body language Matt projected towards me. I thought that I was pretty clear- what’s not to understand about my resume and background? I took it to mean that he was not comfortable with me or felt threatened for whatever reason- subconscious discrimination perhaps.
The interview lasted for about an hour. He mentioned that Brittenford extensively trains all their consultants on the software and there is a 90 day learning period when on-boarded. Also, if selected, the company would ask me to come in for a third interview (fourth if you count the phone interview!) at which time they would conduct extensive personality tests in order to devise a 90 day training module.
I got up, shook hands, and noticed him glance down to my shoes and back up in a judgmental way. I thought I was dressed pretty professionally. I was wearing pleated khakis, white shirt, blue tie and a blue suit coat. Besides the squinty eyes and the judgmental look I thought that the interview went ok. Overall, I had the technical knowledge and wherewithal to learn their software and consulting procedures.
Later in the afternoon I received an email from Shereen saying thank you, but... “we decided to select another candidate that has Intacct experience.” Considering how they talked extensively about training all new consultants on the software I find it hard to believe that my lack of experience was the reason why I wasn’t selected. Basically, their reasoning was very lame and a big crock of you know what! They knew from the beginning I didn’t have Intacct software experience and indicated that it wasn’t a material factor in their decision making process. Their interview process is very lame, they lead you on, and in the end it’s a big waste of time.
…it was the squinty eyes!!!
