It is a precursor to the interview power control. The interview request was given through email and phone call. The phone interview was just basic questions that were answered in the resume but seemed comical to play along. Another HR representative called me shortly thereafter. The interview was set up with a panel of people involved in the hiring process. I went to Chicago to interview very prepared. When I went up to the interview there was only one manager opposed to 3 which I found odd. He was very knowledgeable about Continental and United and the job which took about 10 minutes to background me. The interview was based on the STAR technique which is explained on line and in a number of books. Basically it gives a situational problem and you are to find time in your career where you have had a similar experience, how you overcame the problem and the outcome. The interview was scheduled for 1 hour and we extended that by about 30 minutes. I have had a lot of interview experience and felt this one was one of those that I nailed down. Probably overconfidence on my part but nothing seemed to go wrong that wasn’t recoverable. Here’s where the spiral down begins. The manager I interviewed with was a great, a good hand shaker, smiles all around. I asked him what the timeline was and he told me about 2 weeks. I should have known when he told me that his entire crew stayed in San Francisco jobless rather than transfer to Chicago there might be a problem with this position. He gave me his card and told me to call with any questions or concerns. I believe that is code at United for “the checks in the mail”! I sent my thank you letter and told him how great this opportunity was, yada, yada, yada. I was not contacted after 2 weeks and of course human nature is “what’s going on” so I send an email to the “manager” no reply. Phone calls with messages with no reply. Numerous other emails and still no reply. I finally call the HR rep and he says not to worry this is normal which is code at United for “you didn’t get the job” I have to learn to crack these codes. He told me to give it a month which I did. Finally, 5 weeks later they send me the thanks but no thanks letter via E-mail. Here’s my problem with all this. People love to slap manager on their title but have very little management skills. Being a manager requires you to make tough decisions and giving bad news; especially when you are the one soliciting information. At the very least give some feedback of why I didn’t get the job for future reference. While I would have liked that job and know I would have benn superb at it I am grateful I didn’t get it. In the long run it will be for the best.