Approached the recruiter via LinkedIn with a cover letter detailing my interest in the position. Contacted within a couple of day. Amongst the best recruiter interview I had till date with questions around working style, difference made to the organization where I was working, and more qualitative questions around why I was interested in the role rather than run of the mill questions like What software I used, what deliverables I was producing. The recruiter really knew how to interview designers.
After the brief 25-30 minute call with the recruiter, she promptly set me up with a video interview with the Director of User Experience for the next day. First ever time, I saw a recruiter having command over the interview process without the traditional "I will get back to you after discussing notes with hiring manager" kind of approach.
The video interview was smooth and again focussed on the process and style of working rather than nitpicking on the details of projects I already had on portfolio. Interview was quick and smooth, and I got good answers to the questions I had in mind. It was a win-win interview.
Recruiter got in touch with me within a couple of days - while keeping in touch with me via email throughout the whole time. Third round was a phone interview with a Sr. Designer on phone. Questions were more detailed around the kind of problems I was trying to solve around the projects in my portfolio, the tools I was using to create deliverables, the thought process while approaching a a problem in the project. Had a good discussion around current design trends. Again a very smooth and quick interview. I asked questions around the project management style adopted by the design style, the level of prototyping involved in the projects and overall it was a good interview.
Fourth round was onsite, meeting the product management team , with whom I was supposed to directly work in the San Francisco location. It was a quick one hour interview with the team. Was welcomed in the office, and ushered into a conference room - where one hour flew by talking about how I worked with Product Managers - in terms of brainstorming, getting my questions answered regarding product requirements, the extent of freedom I required while working with the product and my style while presenting solution to the product requirements. There were a few personality kind of questions and it never felt like an interview - and felt more like a discussion.
Recruiter approached me with a quick design exercise to solve - which took a day for me to put together and had me present it to the Sr. Designer onsite over a matter of an hour or so. During which we discussed my solution, my understanding of the problem, and together we expanded the solution to meet more requirements - more like a collaborative white-boarding exercise. Was fun all the way along.