Collaborative Consulting Interview Questions
& Process

This initial interview was an introduction. The interviewer explained a bit about the company and why they're hiring for various positions. They asked me very few questions, and the conversation was quite relaxed. After about 30 minutes, they asked if I had any questions. Following that, they inquired if I wished to proceed to the next stage, which would involve interviews with individuals currently in roles similar to the one I'm seeking – my potential future colleagues.

I got reached out to by Collaborative and had an initial phone chat with the recruiter. Then, I went through two phone calls with senior project managers. After that, I had a 1:1 meeting with the VP of Operations, a senior PM, and a senior business analyst. Following that, I had two more 1:1s, plus a phone interview with the client. All in all, there were 9 interviews. The interviews were pretty relaxed, mostly focusing on "tell me about yourself" style questions, no behavioral stuff or tests at all. Everyone I talked to was clearly an expert in their field with lots of experience. They were really upfront about the pros and cons of working there and the company culture. I got feedback pretty quickly. The offer process was a bit unusual compared to other consulting firms. Collaborative doesn't hire people for a general pool or to fill a specific project right away. So, the offer depended on the client actually signing off on the project's Statement of Work. Basically, I had an offer, but I didn't have an offer. On one hand, I guess it's good that you're not just waiting around for a project that might not happen, which I've seen before. But, it really stretched out the timeline and I was mostly in the dark about whether the client would commit. Another key thing is that Collaborative required a background check, and the offer was also conditional on me passing the client's background check too. That added more time to everything.

It all started in November with the company's sr recruiter reaching out about an architect role for one of their clients, asking if I was open to fulltime or contracting. The initial chat with the recruiter, who was pretty good, went well. Then came the interviews. I had two technical rounds in November, one with a Practice Lead (who's a Sr. Director) and another with the CTO. Those seemed to go fine, the CTO even sent a thank you email, which was a nice touch. In January, I had two days of in-person interviews across their NJ and Boston offices. These involved meeting with company leadership like the COO, the marketing head in NJ, the recruitment head, the Practice lead for PE, and sales and CSM folks who work with the client. Everyone was really warm and receptive, and I got replies to my thank you emails from some of them, which was appreciated. The sr recruiter I was working with was mostly on top of everything.

First up was a chat with HR to see what I'm up to and why I'm looking to switch jobs. Then, a phone technical interview, which seemed like a quick check to see if my resume was legit. No tough questions there. After that, I had an in-person meeting to check our 'fit', followed by another technical interview focusing on a different skill set.