Loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles

Last week I had an interview for a possible contract based in Rickmansworth, Herts. An IT consultancy wanted someone to do the communications for an IT change programme for a major retailer. I did fine on the phone interview, was in London the next day, so agreed to go out to Rickmansworth to meet the senior IT consultant. However, since the identity of the client was top secret, we had to meet in the Caffe Nero in the High Street.

On the way out of the Tube station I passed a large, brown building with a big illuminated sign on it. I arrived about 20 minutes early, spent 10 minutes seeing the sights of Rickmansworth (it takes that long), and repaired to the cafe, which was very draughty, noisy, and full of harassed mothers with young children. The interview was due to be at 5pm.

At 5.15 I phoned the consultant's mobile and left a message on his voicemail. At 5.25 he called me to say he was on his way. Just before 5.30 he arrived, apologised slightly, didn't offer me a coffee, and we went to the back of the cafe to chat. At 5.55 he abruptly said he didn't have anything else to ask me and the interview was over. In all this time he declined to say who the client was or tell me anything useful about them. Nor would he explain what was actually involved in the project or who the stakeholders were.

Strangely I didn't get the job. They said I didn't seem enthusiastic enough. I wonder why?

As a consultant, when you attend a job interview the quid pro quo is finding out quite a bit about the company you're seeing. You put in a fair bit of time on research and they tell you more at the interview. Even if you don't get the job you come away with extra knowledge which is always useful. None of that works if the client is, supposedly, secret.

In this case it seems likely that they had found a friend of a friend to do the job, forgot all about me, and made a token show at an interview. I haven't named the consultancy here, but I was not impressed and nor were my agency. I don't like being treated as insignificant or inept. No-one should be.