Overall, the process felt like a rigorous and fair assessment for engineering managers. At each step, the recruiter informed me what to expect from the interviews and how to prepare. They provided ample written guidance for each interview, with particular focus on the role-play and technical discussion.

• Recruiter Screen This involved competency-based questions and "tell me about a time when..." scenarios. It was not just a resume review.

• Mini-onsite Two separate one-hour interviews with Hiring Managers, featuring "tell me about a time when..." questions.

• On-site (Virtual) This four-hour session included four interviews:

  • System design with a tech lead.
  • Manager interview with other EMs.
  • Manager "role-play" navigating a situation with a direct report.
  • Technical Presentation + Discussion. This required preparing a 1000-word technical document beforehand, followed by a 20-minute presentation and discussion.

Role-play Q: You need to convince your report to commit to switching to a new project that pulls them out of current work they really care about.

Technical discussion: Pick a project that you played a major part in and understand intimately. Describe the technical challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and the business outcomes. Then, prepare a 20-minute presentation on that project and be prepared for in-depth Q&A from individuals who have read your document.

System design: Design a system that aggregates and consumes analytics events. Answer some basic product analytics questions using your architecture and data model.