It was a series of 5 interviews.
- Pre-screening by talent acquisition team.
- Industry experience interview with hiring manager plus an additional engineer.
- Technical skills test called a "pairing." You troubleshoot different scenarios on a host interactively with 2 senior level engineers.
- Culture interview (questions about how you handled situations like overcoming adversity, personal work ethic and personability) with 2 individuals.
- C-Suite meet and greet.
Expect scheduling disruptions. When you're dealing with engineers, slicing out a 1 to 2 hour block with more than a single engineer is already difficult to do. The work can be very fluid, and things come up (especially on Mondays/Fridays). Everyone I interviewed with was flexible and any schedule disruptions were dealt with as soon as they were known.
The tech pairing was a fair assessment and it's something I'd actually be interested in utilizing when considering a candidate. The "test" I took was definitely built around exploring my depth of knowledge and also to see how well I handled pieces I didn't know. The primary interviewer took several opportunities to share knowledge, but it did require me to stay on my toes as we quickly moved between subjects. I'd suggest any potential candidate eagerly accept the instruction in the spirit it is given. There was no irritation displayed when I didn't know something. I was able to express when there were gaps, instruction was provided, and we moved on to the next step. It was very efficient.
Besides the tech pairing (which required a direct display of skills), the rest of the interviews seemed to be oriented towards sniffing out anybody who was primarily presenting bovine fecal matter. I received feedback throughout the interview (which was fantastic) and all questions I asked were answered with candor.