A recruiter reached out to me, asking if I would be interested in learning more about a position they had open. I had received similar emails from Box a few times before but wasn't really interested. This time, I thought I'd give it a shot.

After speaking with the recruiter about my recent past and compensation requirements, he set up a phone screen with a member of the team. It wasn't very technical, focusing more on my past experience and the challenges I had faced. Since this was a manager position, there were also questions about how I would deal with certain "management" scenarios, and of course, the de facto standard question... "Have you fired anyone?" :)

The phone screen went well, and I was invited to come down to the Box office to meet with five more members of the team a few days later. I came in around lunchtime and left around 5:30 PM. I met with some of the people I would have been managing, as well as my potential managers. The topics I discussed with all of them were reasonably similar: "What was my past?", "How would I solve X problem?", "Can you whiteboard this architecture?", etc. At one point, I was given a Linux shell prompt and asked to talk about what I saw and how to find different metrics.

Everyone I spoke to was extremely nice and passionate about what they were working on. I left the interview feeling quite happy, like I'd just left a group of friends after geeking out for a bit.

I had high hopes, and the recruiter came back saying that the team had great things to say about me and that I'd hear back soon. With fingers crossed, I waited quite impatiently, and poked the recruiter a few times more than I probably should have for updates. He never seemed bothered, though, and was always super friendly with me and extremely quick about getting back to me. In the end, though, I didn't get the job. They decided to promote someone from within, which says a lot of good things about Box as a place where you can grow, in my humble opinion.

Since I had received good feedback from the team, there was talk about me joining in another non-manager role. Ultimately, I don't think they had anything open that was a solid fit for my seniority and compensation expectations.

All in all: Box is awesome. I loved the office and found everyone super friendly. I'm jealous of the folks that get to work here. :)

Nothing really comes to mind. All of the questions were solid and reasonable.