Serenova Interview Questions
& Process

HR contacted me and I had a phone screen. Then the hiring manager interviewed me. I was invited for an onsite interview and agreed to come in the same day I was notified. I met with the Finance Controller, Manager of People, the hiring manager, and the CFO. The two women were nice and chatted a lot during their interview. I had another meeting with the hiring manager, and then a dual interview with him and the CFO. The CFO seemed uninterested and repeated some questions. The hiring manager appeared tense during the CFO meeting, even though we had talked before. I was told I'd hear back by a certain time, but I didn't. I had to follow up and eventually got an email days later saying someone else got the job. I thought this was rude given the time I invested in multiple interviews and the last-minute onsite. Maybe people I didn't expect influenced the decision. Reading Glassdoor reviews, it seems common for people who know someone at the company to get offers, and perhaps this company isn't big on diversity.

My interview process was pretty long, starting with a recruiter call about 2-3 months after I applied. That call got me more interested, and then I spoke with the Senior Implementation Manager. This interview was great and had questions that let me share examples of my experience and how I approach customers, coworkers, and work. I got a good sense of the workplace and then had a phone interview with the department manager. This was tougher, with some really deep questions about how I'd handle difficult customer situations. A few days later, I was asked to do an exercise, which was basically a small project plan with detailed answers about challenges in the early stages of a theoretical project. I worked on it all weekend because I really wanted the job. It must have been good enough because they then invited me for an on-site interview where I met with four people in a row: two coworkers, a manager, and the People Manager. All of that led to a very good offer, which I accepted.

It was a single round on-site interview. I met with the current senior network engineer, director of operations, SVP of operations, and the VP of People. I liked that I could interact with different levels of the business and understand their focus and how it relates to infrastructure. The atmosphere was really friendly and direct. I felt like the on-site was mainly to check if I'd be a good fit for the team, rather than a deep dive into my skills as an architect. On the flip side, I got to ask a lot about the current architecture and its future, and used those moments to explain how I could help out, which might or might not have been part of their plan.

Got a reply to my application pretty fast, like within 6 hours. They mentioned they were trying to build up their local team quickly and wanted to speed things up. After I accepted the offer, they were cool about it and made sure I had enough time to give my two weeks' notice at my old job, which was pretty important to me so I wouldn't leave my old team hanging.