After unsuccessfully applying numerous times through the career site, I was put in touch with a friend of a friend, who passed my resume along to the hiring manager. The recruiter called me and we chatted for a while. After determining that my basic qualifications were sufficient, she said she'd be in touch with the hiring manager.
A few weeks later, a phone interview was scheduled with the hiring manager. He and I spoke over the phone. The call was scheduled for 30 minutes, but took an hour. The conversation was very businesslike - no opportunities for small talk or getting to know each other.
About three weeks after that, I was scheduled for an all-day in-person interview session with two different hiring managers. The first interview was with a colleague of the two hiring managers - this interview was great, in that we both talked business and got the opportunity for small talk and getting to know each other. I wish this first interviewer had been the hiring manager, because he was great to talk with and I learned a lot about the company, the culture, the team, and how they operate.
The two hiring managers were both straight to business. Neither friendly nor unfriendly, they simply asked question after question after question. One hiring manager asked me "how do you influence people who do not report to you? How do you get them to do things for you even if they want to or have to?"
That particular question through me for a loop, actually, because it's never come up in my previous 12 years of employment. By which I mean, I've never actually encountered someone who refused to do their job for no reason. My answer was clearly wrong, because the 4th interview was my final interview. That interviewer didn't actually ask me any questions and didn't actually answer any of my questions. She was quite the master at not saying anything but sounding like she'd said something quite profound.
I heard back from the recruiter two weeks later that I wasn't going to be offered the job.
