Sierra College Interview Questions
& Process

So the first thing was this technical test that lasted 30 minutes, it was all about the technologies they currently use, and I kinda bombed it. I spent way too long stuck on stuff I didn't really know, and I should have just hit the ones I knew first. Then, they gave me the exact questions they were gonna ask me later, and I had 30 minutes to get ready and write down some notes. After that, there was a panel interview with 5 people from the IT team. That part went pretty well though, they were all super nice and actually paid attention to what I was saying. They told me I'd get a call by the end of the day to either say 'sorry' or 'come back tomorrow'. I got the call around 4pm and it was a 'sorry'.

Recruiter reached out to set up an interview, and then sent an email follow-up. When the interview day came, there was a 30-minute skills test required before meeting with the panel. The interview questions were given, with 30 minutes to look them over. A panel of 5, consisting of HR staff and a manager, did the interview. Each panel member asked a question one after the other. The last question was an invitation to ask them anything. Everyone on the panel was really professional and friendly. They finished up by telling me about the next steps in the hiring process.

The hiring process was really slow. It took three months to hear back after I applied online. Eventually, a recruiter called and set up an interview. They sent the questions 30 minutes before the online interview. It was a six-person panel with people from different college departments. The interview felt cold and impersonal. The panelists just read the questions, word-for-word, without any real interaction. They seemed unenthusiastic, which made me lose interest. I was told I'd get a response in three weeks because of winter break, but they never contacted me. I finally got a generic rejection email a week later. The long wait and the robotic interview made the whole experience feel unprofessional and like a waste of time.

The interview process was compliant with California law. Search committee members identified themselves as "EEOC representatives." During the interview, both "EEOC reps" and other search committee members reacted negatively to my responses, even though I thought I gave appropriate answers. It felt like the search committee was just going through the motions, as I was a qualified candidate. I've observed that bias against men and white people is prevalent in California institutions, and this bias leads to unfair treatment of qualified candidates, despite a commitment to diversity and inclusion.