Databricks Solutions Architect interview questions

This was for a SA role in the Federal Civilian space. I was quickly connected to the hiring manager virtually. Not a tech screen. He wanted to mainly know what Qs I had. He wanted to know if I was more interested in a "hands-on" keyboard role or "guide" role. I mentioned that I prefer more "hands-on" roles but I am open to the "guide" role as it would still be very focused on data solutions. He suggested I talk to the RSA managers and if that doesn't work out we can continue where we left. I thought that was okay, so we ended it at that. After that, I never heard back on my application (positive or negative). One odd thing was the manager asked about my comfort level for working late hours/weekends. I have never been asked that question but I answered in the affirmative ("as needed") as it happens from time to time. In any case, I asked them to withdraw my application as I got a great offer from Snowflake which was also in the works at the time. My gut feeling tells me the manager was making judgements based on his biases (like age or other having kids) that were not facts or ever having worked with me. The manager appeared to be much younger than me on the video call. That said, Databricks is a great company at least their product and what I see on GD reviews, and this may be one off.

My interview process lasted four months. I interviewed with 12 different people, did a take-home coding test, and prepared and presented a mock sales presentation - and then got ghosted. In that time I had two different hiring managers tell me that they were expecting to make an offer so we discussed compensation and start dates and they called my references (including references I didn't provide - I know because someone who I didn't list as a reference told me they got called multiple times), and then changed their mind and passed me off to a different hiring manager who they thought was a better fit, but who made me start the process over again. Every interviewer acted like they had no notes and were interviewing a brand new candidate, so there was not much depth to any of the interviews. Some of the interviewers needed some training (one spent a lot of the interview asking if I could help their kid get a job at the place I currently work), but for the most part I really connected with several of the interviewers and felt like they were individually strong and would make strong teammates. It was just the process itself that felt completely disorganized. I eventually gave some feedback to the recruiter who I had been working with the whole time. I told him that I was still super excited about Databricks and the role, still enjoying all of the people that I was meeting, but that I felt like I was re-explaining the same background to every interviewer - so I was excited to start a new process with yet another team, but it would save us both time if that team could start with some of the notes from some of the other interviewers that I had met with previously. He never called me back after that.