The phone interview was just awkward. Not only did the hiring manager have employees coming up and asking him questions while we were attempting to talk, he put me on hold. Twice. I felt distracted and blown off; I did not feel the call went well, and thought that I would not make it to the next round. But I did. Day of the on-site, the hiring manager walks me in where the team is just leaving a conference call, introduces me and then asks his team: “Any words of advice?” “Run!” “I hope you’re wearing good walking shoes.” I note that the guy who told me to run was my second interviewer… After the obligatory tour: “Here are the organic snacks, the open air work environment, the free coffee, the ping-pong tables”… the hiring manager switches gears. So yes, the hiring manager prefers walking interviews – it gets him out from behind a desk, and allows him to get people in a much more relaxed, open dialogue. I thought it worked for me: I felt a good connection, answered all questions, addressed the one objection. Then the second interview: started off well, but quickly spiraled to a “what-makes-this-candidate-tick” interrogation. Very much good cop / bad cop. In this case, the AE interviewer latched onto why I left – not my previous company, but the one before. Two important notes you can learn from: I do note that the hiring manager’s “trusted advisor/right hand man” told me that he came from the predatory mortgage industry, where he went in to work one morning and the FBI had shut down his office. Also, when I asked the second interviewer about his work-life balance, he said there is a full balance: he never thinks about work outside the walls of the building, he never responds to email once he leaves. And we all know that this is not the true definition of work-life balance. So if you like a nebulous “work-life balance”, sitting around holding hands and singing Kumbaya, passing the spirit stone – while wondering why someone who cheated people out of their homes & locked them in to predatory mortgages sits in judgement, then maybe Bill.com is for you.