I applied through other source. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Databricks (Bengaluru) in Nov 2019
Interview
"It is Disheartening when you are made to go through 11 Gruelling rounds [with no clear vision and requirement/expectation of this role function] and to be told, WE ARE UNSURE and put on HOLD"
The Interview process began by late Oct'19 where i was reached by hiring manager or so called via LinkedIn. While the initial conversations went well i was clear in SETTING EXPECTATION on my current skill set as the Technology with Databricks is absolutely Alien. I was given the confidence by the hiring manager to proceed further.
This here it started the 2 month interview process which took me 11 rounds [No this is not Google :) ] and by the end of it i was told that they have doubts on required technical skillset. Now this is what i call no Vision and clarity from Leadership as i have been very Vocal and crystal from Day 1 that i do not have the required technical skillset but still i was put through to this with no empathy on the candidate and their time [All these were done considering i was already working in Pacific time for my current employer].
So to potential candidates, please watch out if you are someone who is being approached for this role by India team.
So to sum up, i am disheartened after having to go through 2 months and yet there is no Clarity from LEADERSHIP, well thats none of my problem isnt it!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Process Oriented and your understanding on Big Data.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Databricks (Fairfax, VA) in Sep 2024
Interview
I was initially contacted by a recruiter at Databricks for an incident manager position. I was very transparent with the recruiter about my inability to write code and lack of expertise in engineering. I was previously an incident manager for several years at VMware, where it was not a requirement to be an engineer to fulfill the job duties. After having a successful interview with the recruiter and hiring manager, I was assigned a 7 page written test that included coding/engineering questions. I again informed the recruiter that I had limited knowledge or experience with this and she advised me to leave some of the questions blank. I was then interviewed by 4 other managers for a total of 6 interviews AND asked to submit an additional written essay to assess my experience with incident management. It is significant to note that two interviewers failed to show up on the original interview date, which resulted in me waiting for over an hour and needing to be rescheduled. After 6 interviews, I was informed that I did not get the job due to my lack of engineering skills. It is completely unacceptable to make any job candidate undergo hours of work when they have no intention of hiring that person. Databricks needs to change their hiring practices.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Databricks (Bellevue, WA) in Oct 2023
Interview
Had an internal connection to the team I was applying for that gave a leg up in both interview process as well as knowing the product before hand. Regardless of the network, I still went through 8 rounds. First with the recruiter, then HM, and then 6 rounds with the broader/partnering team.
Make the recruiter your best friend from the beginning. They were able to share a lot of data about not just the compensation, but also what all the rounds will look like, and what kind of questions to expect. This help tremendously as most round ended up asking similar question to the ones that were provided before hand. I had already figured out what to share, all the examples and data point to each questions and my answer sound far more polished due to it.
After the interview they asked for 3 reference, including of a former manager, which I got lucky with since my recent manager just left the company.
All the folks at Databricks were very friendly, down to earth and the conversations were very easy to flow once they understood I knew what the job requires. After that, they weren't really asking questions, it was more about checking if they would like to work with me and vise versa.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
-How do you track security defects, vulnerabilities across multiple teams?
-How do you escalate blockers and issues when there is no traction?
-What are the top 3 skills a PM must have?