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My first round of interviews was from more than 2 years ago. The experience was prior to shutdowns and I traveled to NYC. The interview process was multiple interviews during the day and a panel of 5-7 people for a presentation on whatever I wanted to present on. The follow up was abysmal. No idea what I did right or wrong. I thought I had done something egregious.
Fast forward to 2021 and I received a call from a recruiter for Twilio. I thought it was a mistake because of the first experience and asked the interviewer if they were aware of my previous process. They suggested that I was just edged out from another candidate and that I had received positive reviews from all participants involved. Thinking that this was odd, they explained that they had changed a lot of their practices and asked if I would be willing to give it an chance.
The entire process was so much better! They were attentive to my questions, they were willing to work with my schedule, and communication was awesome! I reached out to former employees to understand why they departed. The consensus from all I spoke to was that the company was wonderful and most importantly the people were top grade! Prior employee realized he was in wrong field nothing against the company.
During the presentation portion, they provided a prompt. Then they helped with a review of my material before I went in front of the group! Such a positive experience and so much the better than guessing what they wanted me to prepare as was found in the 2019 experience.
All the while, the recruiter (Mercedes) was phenomenal. They kept in close contact with me and sharing what the next steps would look like. She and the hiring manager also moved me up to a prompted role in the middle of the process so as to help me be most successful.