Are technical interviews by the company's "expert", followed by the news of the expert leaving and his job also being available a red flag?

Question

As described in the title,

At the last stage of an interviewing process, a technical interview for say job A was conducted by the job A's team leader and a company's employee introduced as an expert in a specific technology called B.

At the end of the interview the news come that both jobs are being offered, both job A and the current expert's role say job B.

Left with the impression of this being a somewhat strange way to offer it, but can't exactly pinpoint what would be the red flag in this case.

It became especially annoying given that the candidate is already an expert in B but had made before more-or-less clear that the transition into the area called A was something he was looking forward to. Perhaps this subjectivity is the source of the strangeness, and if so it may be unjustified.

Answer 1

A red flag is a signal that tells you not to take a job. But on this forum, this term tends to be overused.

So no, what just happened is not a red flag by itself. It's very common actually. But if your gut instinct is giving you a bad premonition of what's about to happen, I think you should listen to your gut instinct and investigate this offer a little more.

It became especially annoying given that the candidate is already an expert in B but had made before more-or-less clear that the transition into the area called A was something he was looking forward to.

So you're yourself an expert in B, but you no longer want to work in B, you want to join this company because you want to work in A (not B). But you're worried that they've hired you because they may still want you to work in B? Is that the worry?

Whatever your worry is, and assuming you haven't accepted their offer yet, now is the time to clear up any doubt you may still have. Don't be afraid to ask for additional interviews to clear up your concerns. Now that you're in the driver's seat, chances are that you'll be able to come up with better questions.

Also, don't just speak to management, be sure you have some one-on-one time with some of your future team members. If there is something they're hiding from you. Your future team members are the most likely to let it slip.

Answer 2

No.

People leave and change jobs. Those people still often participate in hiring. “Help me hire your replacement” is actually a desirable thing from a manager perspective.

Lighten up, Francis!

Answer 3

I wouldn't consider it a red flag. I was in a very similar situation recently: I was a technical specialist helping run technical recruitment and this coincided with me getting an attractive offer in a different org.

It would have been hard to replace me in that recruitment process, and for various reasons the rest of the recruitment panel were already under pressure. So I spent my two weeks' notice focussed on recruiting, with most of my last week on interviewing candidates, knowing I wasn't going to be there when the successful ones started.

It's not ideal, but these things happen. I wouldn't consider it any kind of flag unless there's something else to go with it. If you have a specialised person who's thinking of leaving, it may make a lot of sense for them to interview potential replacements - without the skill to do the job, how can one assess whether somebody else has that skill? (There are ways, but not easy ones.)

Answer 4

There are various reasons that are not at all red flags why you might have heard about position B only at the end of the interview for position A.

It could be that position B had only opened up recently, even just that day, so that was the earliest they were able to inform you that it was open. If the current person in position B was already committed to interviewing candidates for position A, he would presumably continue to do that until he leaves; so long as the employer still trusts him, there's no reason to take away that assignment and good reason to keep him on it.

It could also be that position B had been open for some time but you just hadn't heard about it. Were you aware of all the job openings at the time you first applied for position A? If you were brought in via a recruiter who knew that position B was open, he might not have known that you have the skillset for position B or simply knew that you weren't very interested in position B.

Once the interviewer had discovered you were an expert at B and was happy with the interview otherwise, it is not at all unreasonable for him to ask if you're interested in position B, just in case you are. Why would they pass up the opportunity right in front of them to potentially pick up an expert for open position?

If you're not interested in position B, just say so. However, if you're willing to help support whomever does end up in position B, even if you don't want to do it full time yourself, making that known might increase your chances of being hired for any other position in that company.