I went through five rounds of interviews with Rackspace more out of curiosity than anything else. Seeing as how the company’s troubles in recent years: 10% layoffs, offshoring, and lagging stock price I wanted to see what led to Rackspace’s decline. Interviewing with nine people was a red flag but my curiosity got the best of me.
It was easy to see an interview or two in that the company was fishing for new ideas. With each new marketer, I met via Zoom I could see how Rackspace fell into the position it’s now. The marketing team was siloed, detached, and resting on the laurels of a Rackspace gone by. Most of them had never had a professional life outside of marketing. The cloud market is leaving Rackspace behind as their marketing team holds on tightly to 5-10 year old strategies. Besides, who in their right mind can spare nine employees to interview candidates?