I was contacted by a recruiter from Sysco Labs. She was extremely nice and friendly and wasn't like most recruiters I'd dealt with. We discussed where I was at and gaged some level of interest on both of our parts.
A few weeks later I had a technical screening which consisted of 1 hour of live coding using coder pad. The interviewer was very friendly, understanding of the stress of coding interviews and it was a very positive experience. I was invited for an onsite interview the following day.
The onsite interview took place in the Austin office about 3 weeks later. I was greeted by the HR staff upon arrival where they presented me with benefits and perks information. My first interview was 30 minutes with 2 members of the product team. It was a very enjoyable conversation and immediately made me feel comfortable. Both had not been at the company all that long and they were both enthusiastic about things.
The next 2 hours were spent with 4 senior engineers who started out asking me some basic questions about my experience, apps I'd worked on and what they were working on. Shortly after I was presented a relatively routine coding exercise. The session was interactive and verbalizing my thinking was encouraged. All of the engineers were very friendly and made it a fun experience despite the stress and nerves of interviewing. After the coding session, the interviewers asked me a bunch of technical questions and seemed very open to discussion and a verbalization of ideas.
Everyone in the office was very friendly and made the process about as smooth as it can go. It was probably the best interview I had ever been on in the software business.
