I applied here for an entry-level position through an employee referral. The phone call with the recruiter and the hiring manager was standard and I was called for an on-site interview. I interviewed with the hiring manager, the VP of customer support, VP of tech support and their architect. Being a newbie, I was very tense at first. The Hiring manager was very friendly and his questions were geared mostly towards accessing my personality-fit with the position. He had already asked a bunch of the technical questions during the phone interview so he didn't do that again. The VPs were great to talk to and they mostly talked about their process and work culture. There were a few personality-fit questions. I struggled through the entire 45 minute round with the architect. He had a straight face with no expression and asked me highly technical, product specific problem scenarios which I had no clue how to answer. I think he wanted to see how my problem solving approach was. Finally, I met with the recruiter who told me that she would get back with the feedback and next steps in a few days. The overall experience was good until this point.
I waited a week and then reached out to the recruiter a few times to get an update. I never heard back from them. I then reached out to my buddy who worked there and had a close working relationship with the hiring manager to see if he can help me get an update. I was shocked to hear what my friend told me about my application there. Apparently, they all liked me and the hiring manager at redwood shores had to get a buy-in from his counterpart in Israel as the two teams work very closely. The manager in Israel had a problem with my religion and pushed back on my hiring. Hence they decided to not look at my application as it was causing friction between the two teams already. This was very disappointing as the people at the office were very smart and nice and I would not have expected this from a company here in the US.