Applied through an agency - took a few weeks to get to the first interview stage as the job hadn’t been signed off yet. Attended the first interview in Aylesbury UK and met a rep from HR, and (who I was led to believe) the hiring manager. This went well enough and consisted of a mixture of competency based questions with general cultural ones. I was also asked to give my opinion on some of the issues they were having and asked to interpret one of the reports the successful candidate would be using every day. Again, this all seemed to go well and it was mentioned that I would definitely be asked back for round two. Overall a good experience with two people very easy to get on with. Round two took place approx. a week after the first and to flesh it out with a bit of detail, I was told this would be conducted over Skype with the US head of supply chain, alongside another member of the UK HR team, only this time much more senior. I was given the slot of 1530hrs as the US guy was based in CA, which meant an early start for him as they’re eight hours behind. I personally would have preferred later in the day as this was incredibly tight for me due to working in Northampton and finishing at 1400hrs but there you go. Despite the circa 50 miles inbetween - and the need to go home to get changed into more formal clothing - I still managed to arrive on site on time. It was at this point everything started to unravel: first off, it turned out the interview was not being done over a Skype video link, but instead over a conference call, presumably with the US guy at home on his mobile. I get it was early in the morning, but I feel conducting an interview at this stage over the phone is totally unprofessional and generally a reflection of how unimportant the role was to them. I personally like to see who I’m talking to and find this approach far too impersonal! It wouldn’t have been a problem so much if I could hear what the guy was saying, but he had the very annoying habit of moving the phone away from his mouth meaning I didn’t catch all of what was being asked (and some questions not at all). Although I did on one occasion ask him to repeat, I ended up - stupidly - guessing what he was asking for most of it, unfortunately without much success. Also, when I could understand him, It sounded all the World to me that he was uninterested and just going through the motions, but maybe this was because it was so early for him. Either way, this was very off putting. Yes, I should have been a bit more forthright and told him that I couldn’t hear him every time I didn’t catch something, but I didn’t want to appear impolite (the Britishness in me). Thankfully the interview wasn’t a long one (35 minutes) and I was back on my way again. Moving on, after speaking to the agency post-interview and informing them it’d been a disaster from my POV, they came back a couple of days later with something I can honestly say that I’ve never heard of before in my working life: “it’s a no at this stage but they may come back to you if they can’t find anyone else”. How utterly abhorrent! Needless to say what my response was (a polite no thanks) and I’m so glad I didn’t actually get it as can now imagine how they treat the people they already employ! Absolutely shocking and I most definitely wouldn’t apply for another role with them after this. Insulting doesn’t come close.