My initial contact with the company was a cold call to the hiring manager. He was very receptive and available to talk about the position. After some initial discussion about qualifications, I submitted my resume on-line and the hiring manager had the HR person contact me.
The first formal step of the interview was a general phone screen with the HR person. This consisted of the general background questions to clarify previous job experience. It also included a rating of technical knowledge. I was asked to rate my level of expertise on a scale from 1 to 10 regarding various technologies used by the company. I answered these as accurately as I could.
In the next step, the HR person called back after a couple of days to schedule an on-site interview. I was scheduled to meet with 3 people in the development and test team plus the hiring manager for 1/2 hour each. As far as I could tell, the interview process was not formal or coordinated. Each person had a set of topics to discuss. The interviews were very interactive and the interviewers made a positive impression about the work environment. The discussion with the hiring manager was very conversational (likely because most of the technical information was vetted in earlier interactions). At the end of the interview session, I was informed that there were other candidates that they were interviewing over the next week.
In a follow up phone call with the hiring manager, I was informed that they found a candidate with direct technical experience which I did not have. He was very direct in informing me which eliminated any questions or nagging concerns about hiring for this position.
