Average Interview – Overall Neutral Experience – No – Wed, 20 Apr 2016
Interviewed Apr 2016 in Cupertino, CA(took 42 days)
First contacted via email, then spoke to the recruiter. After a week, they scheduled a phone screening with the director who thought I'd have something good to contribute based on my experience.
After a week, I was scheduled for an on-site with the hiring manager and team. Hiring manager is based out of state so a video skype interview was done with the individual on-site. I had also interviewed with 2 other individuals that belonged to the immediate team. Afterwards, I was told that there would be one more interview should I pass. At this point it was a great experience thus far regardless of outcome...
Another week, I was given positive feedback and asked to come on site again with potential collaborators and teams. First manager had asked about technical skills involving Excel, which weren't too difficult. He asked about past skill sets involving SQL which wasn't pertinent to the role at hand so that was seen as a plus. Also interviewed with 3 other individuals belonging to that team.
Following week was told again that I received positive feedback and that I would have to come in yet again. The director who I had spoken to at the initial point in the process had said that the hiring manager was in town and they had just wanted to meet in person, to make sure i understood the role and expectations to which I did. The hiring manager came in with an individual who I had already interviewed with the first on-site and again asked behavioral and some repeated technical questions. At this point, another two individuals were brought in to interview me from an entirely different team that I suspect were placeholders, given their behavior when talking to me.
At this point, the experience faltered a bit with the time I had to invest and excuses made to be out of work to come on-site for a 3rd time, and having to repeat my answers that were given on-site the first round almost 3 weeks earlier.
The following week, I received feedback that I did not get the job due to technical skills, which is odd since no technical questions were asked during the last on-site visit. This could have been determined two weeks earlier, and I suspect it was a placeholder excuse for the fact that maybe they did not feel a connection with me or I wasn't a right fit for the culture. Because of the length of the process and how much time this took, there was an aspect of emotional investment given the amount of repeated times I had spoken with the team.
In total, including screening, I had gone through 6 rounds, and spoken to 10+ individuals. Quite excessive if you ask me. Cultural fit, connection, and technical skills can very well be determined in 4 rounds with 1-2 on site visits....this reflects on wishy-washy, inexperienced, and unorganized management. Just some constructive criticism here for improvement on the hiring process.
In the end, it was an overall "good" experience, and although I love Apple as a company, I don't think I'd want to be a part of any team that is contingent on such uncertainty.
Interview Questions
How to do a vlookup
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Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test