The overall interview process was well structured. It gave me the chance to know a bunch of people that worked at multiple levels in the organization. And it also gave me a good feeling about what is like to work at FreshBooks in a cultural aspect.
From the first phone screening until an offer was made, it took almost six months. As I was living outside of Canada at that time, the process was adapted to be almost entirely remote. Different time zones also challenged us.
So, it started with several 1:1 phone screenings with people from a variety of roles: Technical Recruiter, VP of Engineering, CTO, and Senior Director of Engineering. Each of them with 1-hour length and consisted mostly of skills, behavioral and experience topics. I was also given much time to ask questions.
After that, we moved on to a technical interview with two principal developers, where I presented and walked through the design of a system I've had built. They've challenged me to rethink the architecture, revive technical decisions, and explain how scaling, debugging, and monitoring were handled.
Then, after finding the best timing for the onsite step (mostly due to my agenda), I was set to have two days with several rounds of interviews. So I flew to Toronto.
The first day was from 10 am to 3 pm. It started with an interview with the CEO and co-founder Mike McDerment. We talked for an hour mostly about cultural fit, behavioral and skills questions. It was followed by another hour panel interview with a Senior Director of Engineering, a Senior Development Manager, and a Tech Lead. Then, I had lunch with a Principal Developer and another Tech Lead, followed by a face to face 1-hour interview with the VP of Engineering.
The second day was a bit shorter, from 12 to 4 pm. It started with a follow-up interview during lunch with the VP of Engineering. Then, I spent over one hour with the VP of Product. And the day ended with another session with the CTO.