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Is it normal I don't want to work at this startup company I applied to because the manager wants to meet at Starbucks? I don't want to be in there talking about my experience with people sitting around us, it's not private and makes me wonder why I can't come to their office. The company seems legit but I am considering cancelling.
I spent a combined eight years working in startups, and never interviewed at a Starbucks, even when one company had an awful looking, totally ghetto office. That should be part of the reason why you interview in-office - to make sure the culture and the surroundings are a fit. Frankly, this sounds sketchy AF to me.
Standard practice. He needs to make a good impression on you before you walk into the place and see unshaven people in a hypnotic trance from writing code 12hrs per day 7 days per week. Present yourself as a smart socially adaptable guy that values process oriented design and development, as well as dedication. After you get onboard, just quit if complications become unsolvable.
LOL. As a fellow code-developer, isn't that why they let us work remotely now? So they don't have to see our ugly unshaven asses wandering around in a code-trance? The holding pen for whichever code monkeys showed up that day should be in the secondary building, in the basement, where nobody interviewing will ever see them. The main floors are filled with pretty marketing people who don't know their heads from their arseholes.
I'd say normal. The school my boyfriend used to work for would sometimes do their interviews at Panera Bread. XD
I've seen it happen but I think it's unprofessional and pretty sketchy. I wouldn't be interested in a job where the interview took place in a coffee shop. I think that's disrespectful of everyone in the shop as well as the interviewee. I don't go to Starbucks to listen to a job interview and those places can be noisy and busy so the interviewer will have a lot of distractions. If they can't get office space for an interview, that's what video conferencing software is for.
Donteat's comment may be on the money, but the whole thing sounds a little sketchy to me. Still, startups these days seem to take pride in being all casual about everything (except when it comes to getting their employees to work at least 16 hours a day), so maybe it's consistent with their ethos.
If you're really uncomfortable about the venue and you're not desperate to get the job, maybe you should let the manager know and ask for an alternative meeting place.
I, until retiring two years ago, worked as a contract aerospace engineer. My interviews where all over the place, airport lounges, hotels, pubs, train terminals, hardly ever in an office somewhere!