Did not meet with future reporting manager

Question

Received an offer for a job I interviewed for. However, the interviewer was the MD, not my future direct reporting manager. Kind of like skipping the first interview and straight to the second interview. Have never been introduced to or met my future direct reporting manager. Should I be concerned to accept this job?

Would it be strange if I asked to speak to the manager on the phone to get to know him/her better?

I wonder if it would risk a rescination of offer though. Maybe the reporting manager decided that he/she didn't like me or my questions.

Answer 1

Depends on the size of the company and if you applied to a specific position or not.

If the company is a large company this can happen. Sometimes a totally different division runs through candidates. For medium and small companies this would be highly irregular since they have no need for the extra layers of bureaucracy.

Secondly if you applied to work at a company and not a specific position then you could end up in a general pool of vetted candidates that managers can pick from and skip steps in the process like directly interviewing you. This is more common with entry level positions where managers are not looking for a specific experience/skill set. Again if you did apply directly to a position and it was not an entry level position then it should raise a flag.

Your situation happened to me when I applied to a rather large corporation right out of college. My interview was even in a different state than where I would be working. I did not meet my supervising manager in person until my first day on the job (had only two phone call conversations before that). The humor of it is I did not find out what I would be working on until after I accepted the offer (I was rather naive). If I had known I likely would have not accepted, but it turned out that project was one of the best projects I ever worked on.

I got lucky, in these situations it is best to ask questions and see if you could talk to who would be your supervising manager before signing anything.

Answer 2

If it is important to you, then ask to speak with your direct manager before accepting an offer. I didn't speak to mine or meet in person during the interview process, but I spoke with him on the phone after an offer was extended.

Answer 3

No it is a perfectly reasonable request to ask to speak with your direct manager prior to accepting the offer. This person will likely have the power to make your work life pretty rough so you should make an effort to make sure that you are on the same wavelength.

Answer 4

Would it be strange if I asked to speak to the manager on the phone to get to know him/her better?

I can't imagine accepting a job offer without even meeting my direct manager at least once. I believe the relationship between employee and manager is one of the most significant factors in job satisfaction, and repeated surveys indicate that it is a prime factor for people's decision to quit a job.

I've never encountered a situation where potential employee and potential manager never met, so I really can't say if the hiring company would consider it "strange" that you asked. I think it's "strange" that they didn't even offer a meeting, and I consider it a red flag about the nature of the company.

If this is a job you want, I think it makes complete sense to ask for such a meeting. If they decline, I'd think twice or three times if this was the kind of company where I want to work.

Answer 5

I would want me meet my supervisor, see the facility, see what my cube looked like, and meet some co workers.

I know this is like a worse case scenario but it could be a toxic environment the MD does not want you to see.

Did the MD give an explanation?

An interview is also to sell the candidate on the company.