Skype "texting" job interview?

[BigSki]

This is a new one for me. There's a new start-up company that is semi-local that wants to interview me for a position. The company is M3D. After a few e-mails back and forth with the production manager, I was asked to do a Skype interview today. I don't Skype. I don't have the service and really don't know anything aboot it, so I did a webz search for info.

It seems that it's a service that I have to pay for and I need to set up an account to use, 2 things that I have no desire to do. I e-mailed the production manager this morning and requested a simple phone interview. I still haven't received a response.

Did I do something wrong by refusing to buy a "chat" service that I would never use again? Is this the new "norm" for dealing with businesses these days? ( electronic correspondence)

[Calderwood]

Skype is free. Stop limiting your chance at getting the job and download the Skype app.

[binaryterror]

Yup, Skype app is free....

I've never paid to skype.

[Meatwad]

Skype to Skype is free. Only paid part is to call land lines.

Do wear pants during the interview and not just a nice looking upper half... Just in case.

[BigSki]

Thanks for the replies. I went back and downloaded it. Damn new ways of doing simple tasks....

[WHITE-TRASH]

I can only imagine how impersonal a place will be to work for if they insist on using electronic correspondence with someone local.

[Meatwad]

Non confrontational is the new manly... Or so I'm told.

[binaryterror]

Originally Posted by WHITE-TRASH

I can only imagine how impersonal a place will be to work for if they insist on using electronic correspondence with someone local.

Its a start up, sometimes the people who can hire are doing a lot more than hiring and on the road handling the issues of growing. Not unusual to handle business on the go in a start up company.

[johnnyh66]

I'm thinking before you sent that email you should have done more research first (or asked here) because now... the "new start up company" may think you are out of touch with the modern world... or unwilling to learn new stuff.

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by johnnyh66

I'm thinking before you sent that email you should have done more research first (or asked here) because now... the "new start up company" may think you are out of touch with the modern world... or unwilling to learn new stuff.

Agreed, and very true. I could give a rats ass about social media and using it in a work force, but maybe it will show the willingness to "adapt" since I did download and am currently "waiting" for the interview to start. It's all texting, no webz cam, which is good since I don't , or want, one.

[EeePee]

Texting and pants... The kids these days.

[Hunter711]

Look on the bright side.

[BigSki]

Well, that was an officially "weird" experience, to say the least. There's no way to judge how well I did because I can't see the other persons body language! ( duh!) The mind games have been eliminated. I can't give them the "if you don't hire me I'll hunt your family down" look that I've perfected.

In the interviewers defense, he told me how much he doesn't like the Skype interviews either. All I can do is keep a positive attitude and say that I did the best texting that I could. My biggest take from all of this is: It's incredibly impersonal, I didn't care for it. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks I'll be working PT for M3D, making desktop 3D printers for the masses.

[wings_of_fire]

Originally Posted by BigSki

I could give a rats ass about social media and using it in a work force,

Originally Posted by BigSki

I can't give them the "if you don't hire me I'll hunt your family down" look that I've perfected.

Haha! That was funny.

I personally have never liked jobs and never will. I like being self employed. Its tough initially but that's what I am molded to do.

I have always hated the soft skills and the soberness requirement of a white collared office job.

[badhoopty]

occasionally i gotta give creative presentations to corporate executives via video conference. i freaking hate it, so much better/natural feeling to do it in person or just normal conference call.

skype/facetime is bad because you have to sit there and look at your own goofy self while you look at a face thats not really making direct eye contact since the camera is out of direct eye line. just goofy and weird.

[johnnyh66]

[BigSki]

Update: It got weirder. I got a call Friday morning from the person who "interviwed" me with texting on skype. He asked if I could stop by around 4 pm that afternoon to see the operation. I drive down there ( it's about 25 miles) and find the address, it's a new office style building. The guy meets me in the lobby and we go upstairs to the "company".

It's literally a bunch of Ikea desks and chairs with people walking all over the place w/ their laptops. There's a row of half assembled printers on a table. The guy shows me a pile of Ikea office chairs in the boxes and tells me to assemble a chair so that I can have a place to sit and watch a printer being re-fitted with a new gear.

I knock out the chair in about 5 minutes and join him with a young girl sitting at a table, just staring at a printer. It turns out that the girl is there for an assembly position as well, although she just graduated from an art school. ( WTF anyone??)

Long story short, I ended up being there for almost 3 hours before being given the sales pitch about how this company is about to move to a nice, big building and how they are about to hire 100's of people to work for this company once they get the printer being built for consumer sales and how I'll have a great chance to move into a different position.

Right now they are still in Beta, trying to get functional units out to the KickStart backers. There's a big backup from parts not being available. They only have part time hours and they don't know how many days a week that there will be work or for how long it will be like this. Then I was told, along with this young girl, that they'd like me to work for them and the starting salary was $x/hr. and that they pay 2x a month. Not every other week, just twice a month.

I told them I'd think about it this weekend and let them know. I'm not 100% sold on this. I can see the potential for this desktop printer to take off because of the price point and it would be a great place to be in with this company at the very beginning, but it seems almost too unorganized. They want me for my skills and potential to grow with this company, yet they only want to pay me the same as a young girl w/o absolutely any mechanical skills? Seems a bit off to me.

Tell me what you guys think. I've never worked for a start up, it's always been established companies. Does this sound "normal" for a situation like this?

[WHITE-TRASH]

So when did amway get into the 3d printing game?

[wings_of_fire]

The company seems like a dream that came out of a persons mind that has spent all his life in the IT sector or in front of a pc (no offense towards people in similar field). There are way to many impractical decisions that I see in the management from what you have described.
Business is strict discipline.One does not start a business until he/she has a product ready (not optimized but at least a working model) that can bring in cash as it is. Money is something that cannot be taken lightly and it dries up way too fast. They are creating inventory in the form of a workforce and big office etc and that can be dangerous. It does not take so many people to build a simple 3d printer! Their risk factor is way too high for a start up company unless it is backed by a big business tycoon to absorb the variables of business losses. I get a hint that they do not have the right financial backing.

The company is a shot in the dark. If it hits its big, if it misses all go home.

[Natedog]

BigSki, updates?