Very long process that stretched over 2.5 months, 8 interviews in all, took 7.5 hours with 8 different people. It was only the last 3 interviews that were actually worthwhile, the rest were a waste of time. Some were rushed, HR guy kept forgetting that I was local to their head office, and one guy didn't remember having already interviewed me.
* I applied and was contacted by email within 1 week.
* First interview was basic 30 min HR interview (by phone) where they confirm a few things on your - resume.
* 2nd interview was a technical deep dive (1 hour using google hangouts). This was with a senior technical member of the team. 30 min spent on my technical experience, 30 min on my mgmt experience. Very basic questions which were more of a confirmation of what I'd done type of thing.
* 3rd interview was the "life story" with the recruiter (also via google hangouts).
* 4th interview was a 30 min chat with the director using google hangouts. That interview was very rushed. You could tell he was busy and was rushing through basic confirmation type questions of my resume. Again, just confirmation of my experiences.
* 5th interview was a 90 minute paired programming interview. This was the first time I went into their offices. I met a senior technical member of the team and he watched me write a program for him. I was surprised to have to do a programming interview for a mgmt position, but was told everybody had to go through it.
Throughout the first 5 interviews they kept saying how they had never hired managers before and this was very new to them. At this point I was still very surprised by the type of questions they had asked, and not asked. No questions on mgmt scenarios, performance issues to deal with, etc.. All questions that you would expect for a mgmt position. Its as if they didn't know how to interview for a mgmt position, so they used the technical interview process instead. I realize the managers have to be very technical (which I am in my industry), but this part was a waste of time.
* 6th, 7th and 8th interviews, were scheduled in their offices one after the other. One hour each, back to back. Again, the HR rep didn't remember I was local and didn't need to travel to go into the office.
* 6th interview (1 hour) was with 2 existing team leaders and it was more inline with what a mgmt interview really should be. We went through my mgmt experiences, different scenarios mgrs deal with, how I handled them, what I'd do differently, etc.. Exactly what you'd expect for a mgmt interview.
* 7th interview (1 hour) was with 2 senior technical members. They brought up a technical issue they were dealing with and wanted us to work through possible solutions. The 6th and 7th interviews were in the same room, but they didn't realize that the 8th was in a different room on a different floor. By the time they brought me to the other room, we were late for the 8th interview.
* 8th interview (1 hour) was with the hiring director and the same senior technical member from my 2nd interview. That guy later told me he didn't realize he had already interviewed me until about half way through it. The Director mentioned being late to the interview about 3 times throughout it. This was a typical mgmt interview. He asked about my mgmt experience, how I handled mgmt situations, performance issues, etc. All things you'd expect for a mgmt position.
One week later (now about 9-10 weeks after the start of the process) I got a voicemail telling me they were not going to offer me the position.
The types of interviews and questions they had in the first 5 interviews showed their lack of experience interviewing for mgmt positions. Their work environment seems a lot less structured than other engineering workplaces. It was only after those final interviews that I realized this wasn't the right place for me (I prefer a more structured engineering environment where the teams have clear deliverables), so in the end it worked out for the best, but we could have come to that conclusion a lot sooner.