Not Senior Enough

After meeting with a hiring manager for an interview, I received feedback from a recruiter that I wasn't "senior enough". At this point, I had been in a senior/lead role for over 10 years (which looked like longer than he'd been) and I believe the part of the interview the hiring manager based his decision on was this:

HM: "Tell me about a time where you disagreed with your manager. How did you handle it?"

ME: (thinking about my most recent experiences) "I don't really have any times that we've disagreed on anything."

HM: (cuts me off so I'm not able to continue talking and moves on to next question)

And this is how communication styles differ. My side of the story is that if the hiring manager would have let me finish my thoughts, I would have been able to add to my words and tell him how at my most recent jobs I've been hired by leaders that trust and empower me to make decisions and there haven't been any disagreements. Yes, there's been further discussions and planning on areas where I took the lead on projects that my bosses knew very little about, but he didn't seem to have the time to let me continue talking. I've been fortunate enough to experience this type of leadership and I appreciate each and every one of my leaders that has allowed me the space to grow, they know who they are. I've experienced other types of leadership earlier on in my career that were more managing me, and I needed more guidance to grow then. I'm fortunate that this hiring manager did me a favor by not moving me to the next round of interviews. Although, I don't think his judgment was correct and he probably should have considered my years of experience or, at least, let me finish answering.

Normally, I would have asked at the end of the interview if he had any concerns about me if I were hired for the role, however, I didn't this time because I knew something was amiss. His communication style was different from mine and his approach was to find something wrong with me and he did. This is just another example of a male and female not communicating well and, more usual than not, the male is in the position to make the decision which was an incorrect judgment of me. This wasn't a good start to our working relationship for either of us.

Communication and leadership can make or break a team. I believe in meeting people where they're at in their career and going from there. If not just getting started in the industry, we've all had different experiences by working at different jobs, with different leaders, and people with different communication styles and it's important that we respect other styles that are not just like our own.

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