This was the most interesting interview experience I have ever had. Writing a painfully long review as I think those who will make it to the end of this long review are the ones who have a very good chance of getting through :)
NetApp is a very reputed company and this must be(I am assuming) one of the rare cases, maybe.
The other day I got an email from the HR regarding this position and inquiring about my availability for a 10 minute technical screen. I sent her a few timings and then it was confirmed for one particular date.
And guess what ! she did *NOT* call. After waiting for about half an hour, I left her a voice mail and also sent an email asking if she wants to reschedule. NO Reply. Sent another email after a couple of days. NO Reply ! Following day, I thought this is so unfair. So, I called her up on her office number in the morning and she picked up. I reminded her about the scheduled call. She said she was busy in a meeting. Really ? Wouldn't it be nice to drop a quick message to the candidate who must be waiting anxiously besides his phone for the call ? I can understand that one may have forgotten or been busy due to some reason. But did you also not get my voice mail or my emails ?
Anyways, Then she asked if I have time for a 10 minute technical screen. I said sure!! and gave an interview right away. Never before in my life did I call up an interviewer to conduct my own interview. :) She then asked me to wait for a minute so that she can grab her "list of questions". Wow ! :D
I answered most of the questions correctly, not all. They were pretty basic, some networking related stuff like number if bits in IPv4/IPv6 and then Filesystem, inodes etc. The final question was about a binary tree and just for clarification, I asked her if it is a complete binary tree. She said.. "I am not sure, I am not a technical person". Epic ! right ? :)
Anyways, so at the end of the interview, she told me that I have done well and will be contacted again to schedule next round of telephonic interview. She *did* actually contact me and it was setup at a date about a week later from the first call and the interviewer *did* call me at the given time. Lucky me !
Again, the interviewer(Product Support Manager) didn't tell me much about himself, besides his name the company he works with :). Useful Info ! After I talked a little bit about my background, he started asking questions from his own list :D, seriously. The initial questions were typical boring behavioral questions like -- what are your 3 strengths, 3 weaknesses, role model, dream job, 3 reasons you want to work for NetApp, 3 reasons why NetApp should hire you etc. I am sure he got those from some website, minutes before the interview. Then came some technical questions like what are 3 differences between C and C++, 3 differences between malloc and calloc, 3 differences between TCP & IP. 3 must be his lucky number.
Anyways, after he ran out of questions(from his list) he said -- that's it and the HR will get back to me. He didn't even have the courtesy to ask me if I had any questions for him.
After sending out a couple of follow-up mails in the next week I finally got a reply saying they think that my *background doesn't match* with their requirements. Fair enough, because, It actually doesn't, as I have been a developer for years :D. To be honest, this is not a case of "sour grapes". I wanted to take this as just a practice interview and I thought I would learn at least a couple of things from it.
I did, and the takeaway was "to remain calm" in such situations and with such interviewers. And also, Be prepared with 3 answers to any darn question :).
For those, who have made it so patiently till the end of this review, I have good news for you ! If you are going to interview for this particular position and with the same people(Nothing personal), It's gonna be a cake walk. Good luck !