I have a friend that works ServiceNow, so after I applied online I asked him if he could bring some visibility of my application to the hiring manager. The position I applied for was named "Architect - Platform Persistence". It took a day or for my friend at SN to determine who the hiring manager was and to reach out to him, but once he did, I received an email from the HM almost immediately, locking in the date/time (the following Monday) for the phone interview. The phone interview was with the HM, a Manager/Lead developer and a Principal Developer on the Cloud Platform team. We had 45 minutes scheduled. I am currently a Senior Staff Software Engineer so they asked me a lot of questions about my role , why I'm looking at other opportunities, etc. FWIW, I am looking for *growth* opportunities, particularly towards formal Architecture jobs, which is what I applied for at SN. I liked the two gentleman I spoke to on the phone. You could tell they had personalities. They were friendly, articulate, and came across highly intelligent and experienced. Yet, I didn't pick up on very much (if any) condescension or arrogance that often comes out of senior developers, especially those judging you for employment at their company. I respect and appreciate that. The technical part of the interview was probably medium difficulty. I wasn't prepared (mentally) for a technical interview (which is my own fault), so I think I rambled on at times. They were very patient most of the time, however. :) It seemed like this particular position mainly required SQL (MySQL or MS SQL in particular) and Java knowledge. Here are just a small sample of the questions they asked me: One question that caught me off guard was "How does Java implement generics?" Apparently, Java uses "type erasure". Perhaps that's a basic Java question- in that case, that's embarassing that I didn't know the answer to that. I have used generics in Java, C#, and C++ (templates), and have spent my career (14 years) writing in many languages from the database up to the UI, rather than only doing Java for 14 years, so perhaps the specifics of "how generics are implemented in Java" eluded me, although I use generics all the type in practice when working with Java. They also asked me if I ever use the "finalize" or “volatile” word in Java, and I stated that I don't. They asked me where and why I've used a Try-Catch (which was easy), and I fought the urge to find that insulting. For an Architect position, they didn't ask me a single question about design patterns, which I happen to be really good with, so that was a bummer. They asked me a lot of SQL questions. Mainly it was around how Indexes work, execution plans, etc. They also asked me about some difference between MS SQL and MySQL. I described the manner in which MySQL executes subqueries, and they were satisfied and moved on. Then I was asked the difference between InnoDB and MyIsam engines. Unfortunately, I've never used myisam, so couldn't answer this question. We went over the alotted phone call (which some times is a good sign?), and they gave me a few more minutes to ask questions. I asked about the title "Architect - Platform Persistence" and why the actual description stated "Senior Software Engineer". The HM said that "Architect" was a typo and I would in fact be interviewing for a mid or senior level developer role. He mentioned that their platform is so complex that it would be very difficult to hire an Architect from external sources. Makes sense to me- but I was disappointed at this because I am presently in a senior role, paid very well, treated extremely well, and life is GREAT other than growth (architecture) opportunities. Obviously, I can't see myself leaving for a lateral (Senior) or lower (mid) role, even if the new role paid me slightly higher. Nonetheless, SN seems like a really cool place to work and I thought I'd love to work with the Cloud Platform team over there because I liked the HM and the Principal Dev I spoke to on the phone so much. So, when they invited me to an onsite interview, I agreed to it. Before the phone call ended they were gracious enough to give me some feedback and advice for my on-site. I really appreciated that. I ended up contacting the HM just before the on-site interview day, after much consideration and deliberation, and cancelled the interview. The reason is that they wanted me for a mid or senior developer role... and as I mentioned before, while I think it would be great to work at SN as a mid or senior developer, it simply just isn't the right career move for me. I thought it prudent to spare the entire panel of interviewers (and myself) from a day of technical interviewing for a position that my heart was not in. I hated to cancel last minute, but I hope they can appreciate that I didn't want to waste their time in the end.