Applied online and reached out by hiring manager two months later directly by email. I was surprised as no HR screening. Then the hiring manager set up video interview himself and the interview went well which lasted for 30 minutes as schedule. Second round interview was the final round, was with the GM of the business unit that the role supports. The video interview lasted only for 17 minutes while scheduled for 30 minutes. I asked her repeatedly for any other questions the interviewer might have. She told me no other questions. It was quite an easy one though I can't tell as it did not last for long and I was nervous about why she had no further questions for me.
Right after the final round interview, I found the job posting in LinkedIn changed to "this position is no longer accepting any applications". I thought I failed the interview and they made the decision by hiring someone that they have in mind.
3 weeks after the final interview, the hiring manger sent me an email in an early Monday morning asking me if I have time for a quick catch up today or tomorrow. I told him my availability on the following day, he seemed very courteous. He called the following day with 10 minutes late. He first asked me since it has been a long time if I am still interested in that role. I told him that yes I am still very interested in that role. Then he asked me for how I feel of the conversation with the GM. I told him I felt she is a nice person and easy to work with. I can sense that he felt satisfied over the phone and he told me yes, sometimes people working around you are as important as the content of the job. I agreed. He then asked me what is your expected salary? I paused for a little, as I was psychologically prepared for this question yesterday while receiving his email. But I don't have a number in mind. He told he if you don't have a number in mind, I can call back in another day. I asked him if he has a range for this position, can we start from there? He told me give me a day or two and I will get back to you as I need to connect with talent acquisition. I also asked if he can send me the benefits information. As I don't know their benefits package including health insurance premium , any stock options and 401K, then I can't tell how much is my expected base salary as I need to compare with my current job salary and package. He told me he would like to connect me with talent acquisition. Then the next day morning, talent acquisition sent me the benefits brochure so that I had a chance to read through it thoroughly and do the math. I emailed back to the hiring manager and asked if we could continue our discussion. He told me HR (talent acquisition, the person who emailed me the brochure) would give me a call next week and ask me to send my availability to them.
2 days after I sent the availability, HR set up time with me and he called me on time. He first did a lot of selling of how great the company is, its talented people, that you never gonna feel that you are the smarted person in the room. And he told me the culture is collaboration, no competition here. Everyone was so helpful, especially the onboarding experience is great so that you feel like a family. He then explained to me the company offered permissive time off, which is a great benefits, meaning you can take whatever days you want to spend time with your family provided your manager approves it. He asked me if I have any questions regarding the benefits package and they have a 24 hours hotline to answer any questions from me. He said they really want to make every candidate have a family feeling so that even though not every candidate decide to take the offer, they still will apply for the company afterwards in the future. He told me the reason they don't send me an offer before knowing my expected salary is, they don't want to insult me by a lower offer. He asked my expected salary, I told him over the phone with a number. and he told me it is on the high side but it is not entirely impossible. It is really up to the hiring manager. Then I asked him about their range on this position. He only told me the lowest number for this position. and he add 10K to it and ask if I can accept this number. I said no, as the benefits are worst so I will lose money by accepting this number, then he add another 10K to it and asked me, I told him it is still very tough. Then he told me he will have to go back and talk to the hiring manager. He convinced me that he will talk to me again in about a week.
After a week I sent him an email following up with him, no response. After another 2 days I sent an email to the hiring manager and said since talent acquisition did not get back to me, could you give me any update. No response after two weeks. For years I thought it is one of the greatest company to work for as I encountered very talented people who work there. Based on my interviewing experience, I really doubt it and believe I dodge the bullet.