I applied through other source. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Smartsheet in Jun 2013
Interview
Overall the interview process went well, I enjoyed meeting with the entire IT team (was a small group at the time), as well as the business teams that I was being interviewed to support. A very personable company that makes a solid effort to deep dive into your abilities and offered tremendous growth potential. I believe my career would have grown extensively here and was looking forward to the potential opportunity with the Director of IT whom would have been my boss.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
My primary issue is that during the interview process, I met with the CEO whom interviews everyone. During this interview, I apparently used "kill words" that he has an issue with. I indicated that in the past I have been somewhat "Hot Headed", being a younger guy, but immediately presented information surrounding how I have worked on that in the past and where I am today. I was turned down because the ceo "has heard people state they've been hot headed before, and promised they had changed, hadn't changed and caused issues". All other qualifications and experience I fit solidly and was fought for heavily by my would be manager. Unfortunately none of that was enough to overcome this completely arbitrary issue.
Applied online and was contacted by a recruiter. I was asked what my salary expectations were, which threw me off a little. But I respect the straightforwardness so I gave them a range. They took note of this and said that would be no problem as it was within the range of the role.
I had a quick behavioral phone interview to get me to the on-site interview. I was local so I was invited to have a day long interview at their office. I met with about 5 people that did the typical behavioral and tech interviews. For tech it was mostly scenario based questions or white boarding. No formal tests, which was nice. Behavioral was a little different than most companies. You are encouraged to ask questions about the company/role. They are primarily looking for probing questions that indicate you are serious about this role and knowledgeable about the industry as a whole. There was also a catered lunch with the "team." It was pretty cool getting to see the team's dynamic and how they interacted with each other. However, it was pretty awkward as you aren't really included in any of their conversations, but the point is more to be a passive observer. Overall the 1:1 interviews were pretty easy with a laid back atmosphere. Some challenged you to dig really deep into your respective knowledge domain(s) so that was fun.
I got an offer about a week later, but the salary was much lower than the range I initially gave the recruiter. The company was not able to get close to what I was looking for so I declined the offer.
Advice to management: Make sure your recruiters know the salary bands for the positions so there are no surprises and wasted time on both sides. Conversely if you want to attract talent to the company plan to be competitive and knowledgeable about the local market.