Initial contact was made by the recruiter. The hiring manager subsequently went out of town for a week, which explains the ten-day delay. There was no phone prescreen; I only had an on-site interview.

I met with the software manager, who would also be making the hiring decision, in her office. She told me a little about the team and what she was trying to accomplish with building it. Shortly thereafter, the tech lead joined us in her office.

The tech lead asked me to go over my previous jobs. He asked some light technical questions, which were all easy to answer. This took about half an hour. After that, the tech lead left, and I spent another 20 minutes or so talking to the manager alone about the team and their processes.

The Cisco campus is quite large. They have a cafeteria, a gym, volleyball courts, and more. It's easy to see why they regularly make the Best Places to Work list.

The atmosphere is pretty laid-back. The development manager was wearing shorts and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, and the tech lead was wearing jeans and sandals. They also seemed quite flexible regarding work-life balance issues.

I wanted the job, but they said I was "overqualified." Since the interview was through a recruiter, they knew my rate before setting it up, so I don't think "overqualified" meant "too expensive" in this case.

What are the possible scopes for a Spring bean?