I applied through a consultancy. With nearly 20 years of experience, I noticed that many of the interviewers, especially those who had been with the company for a long time (including people in India and Singapore), seemed prejudiced, lacking self-confidence and decision-making abilities.
In the first round, the interviewer was excellent during the system design discussion. He mentioned that he was new to the organization, which may have been why he gave honest, unbiased feedback. We had a productive conversation about designing a parking lot, building on each other’s ideas as you would in a real-world scenario. He gave me positive feedback right after the interview, and HR quickly reached out to schedule the second round.
However, the interviewer in the second round seemed more focused on testing me than having a genuine conversation. This made it hard to engage in a meaningful discussion since he wouldn’t confirm or deny anything I said. Despite claiming that there were no right or wrong answers, his responses like “is it?” or “could be” made the exchange feel unproductive. Afterward, I had to wait two weeks for any feedback.
The third round was with the hiring manager, a long-time employee at Standard Chartered. The interview was labelled as the "Final Round," and during it, I realized the role came with an extensive list of responsibilities, all of which I possessed. It made me feel they were expecting too much and the pressure could be high. Nevertheless, I went through with the interview. He asked me to redesign a system by combining a few microservices just to evaluate my thinking. It appeared like he wanted to avoid the more general design problems such as design youtube, whatsapp, etc which was fair; but didn't seem to have any specific answers to his problem himself. Although conversation was fine, I sensed an underlying tone that my career break somehow made me less valuable. I was put on hold for a while, and they only confirmed my selection after another candidate declined their offer.
HR then confirmed my selection via email and asked me to submit my documents, which I promptly did. But then came the twist: they scheduled another round with the manager of the hiring manager's and asked to have a conversation with him.
So, the fourth round took place with this leader, who was based in Singapore. While he generally seemed to approve, he expressed concerns about my lack of banking experience. He felt it was necessary to consult a Product Head (which felt odd, since it was an engineering hiring decision).
This led to a fifth round with the Product Head. He acknowledged that I had all the necessary skills for the role but wondered why I had taken a break from my career. He even asked me directly what I would say if he decided to reject me. I expressed confidence that there was no reason for him to say "no" as I possessed the right skills, experience, and stakeholder management abilities. The only gap was my banking experience, which I was confident I would quickly pick up once onboard. Still, there was indecision, and he suggested I speak with someone else from the business.
By this point, I was becoming frustrated with the indecision and the leadership’s reluctance to make a choice. But since I had already invested so much time and effort, I continued. HR suggested I mention a family or health-related reason for my career break. It was clear they were uncomfortable with my decision to take time off, which seemed to reveal their prejudice.
The sixth round I felt went smoothly with no issues, but once again, I received no response from HR for two weeks.
At this point, I was ready to decline the offer, even if it came through. The constant indecision and the bias against my career break made me concerned about working under leaders who couldn't make clear decisions and couldn’t fathom that I could decide to take a career break of 4 months after two decades in the industry!
Eventually, I emailed HR to inquire about the outcome. The response was brief: they had decided not to move forward.
It’s clear that this organization has leadership that refuses to take responsibility and prefers to pass the buck. In hindsight, I’m relieved I didn’t end up there.
