It was the most uninspiring job interview I ever had.
Three rounds in total. First one with the recruiter. Second one with the line manager and a peer of the line manager. Third one with two other people from the greater HR team.
First interview with the recruiter left a good impression. The recruiter was well-organized, to the point, asked the right questions and was succinct with their description of the position.
The second interview was THE interview as it was the one with the line manager and it was going to be one based on a business case. I would receive the business case one hour prior to the interview and do the report out at the interview.
I did receive the "business case" exactly one hour before the interview. I am using inverted commas this time because, in my opinion, the "business case" had absolutely nothing to do with business. It was about a set of hypothetical HR-related requests I would receive from the head of a business unit and I was expected to present how I would satisfy these requests, whom I would contact, what form I would fill in, etc..The hypothetical requests in the "business case" had nothing to do with the strategic HR management scope you'd expect from an HR Director role, it was all about paper pushing and acting as a PA. Every time my responses would steer toward a more strategic approach, I would get interrupted by the line manager and reminded that they do exactly what the business unit requests them to do without questioning and that they neither have the tools nor the mindset to dig below the surface.
Halfway through the interview, I was 100% convinced that there had been a mix up and that I was in an interview for a team admin role rather than an HR Director.
By the end of the interview, I concluded that there was no mix-up but that what they called HR at Philips was actually Personnel Administration from 1991.
I went into the third interview knowing that there was no way I would accept an offer if I ever got one. Ironically enough, the last interview with the two other HR team members was quite normal, they asked absolutely decent questions and I got the impression that they were expecting strategic answers, contrary to the previous round with the line manager. Since I had already decided not to take the job and was completely disengaged, I did not put in any efforts to impress. I would have left with a completely different impression had either of these two interviewers been the line manager for this role. So, I want to say that maybe the root of this old-fashioned way of working is not the company itself but maybe a micro-climate within the company, but a micro-climate is still a climate and it may be too big a risk to take accepting a job offer with a company that may not provide the kind of environment where new blood can thrive.