Tom Sawyer Software Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and heard back from a recruiter in a week or two to schedule a phone screen. The call happened three days later and was about 30 minutes long. They asked me basic questions about my experience, salary expectations, and my reasons for wanting to switch jobs. A week after that, I was invited to their office for one-on-one interviews with two different people, which took place the following week. The first interviewer was friendly and asked a lot of very specific questions about the job, hypothetical situations, and my past experience. The second interviewer, however, was not very pleasant; she was unfriendly, never smiled, and seemed uninterested, which made me more nervous. After these interviews, I had to complete a skills test, which I was aware of beforehand. This test involved assessing my writing, editing, and MS Word abilities, all within a 30-minute time limit for each section. While I'm a strong writer, the time constraint made it difficult to produce quality work, especially for the essay on why I'm the ideal candidate and my perception of the company. The editing portion was also challenging due to the time limit, and I missed having access to reference materials like I do at work. The MS Word section was straightforward if you're familiar with its features. Although I understand the need to test these skills, the time limits and lack of resources felt unfair and unrealistic. I suggested that perhaps they could ask candidates to bring a writing sample instead. After spending about four hours at their office, the recruiter walked me out and vaguely suggested we'd talk the following week. It's been over two months, and I haven't heard back, leading me to believe I didn't get the job. The lack of follow-up is unprofessional, and it seems to be a common practice in the Bay Area to ghost candidates, even after they've invested significant time. I had to use vacation time for this interview, so a simple email stating they weren't moving forward would have been appreciated.

I got this job through my school's career portal. About a week after I applied, they called me in for an interview. It was in person. I met with three people: the hiring manager, the accounting supervisor, and the operations supervisor. They all asked pretty much the same stuff. The interviews were pretty laid back and not too tough. After that, I had to do a writing and editing test. For writing, I had to write a short paragraph explaining Tom Sawyer Software and its products to a customer. I'd recommend looking at their website and products beforehand. The editing part involved checking an excel sheet for formatting and calculation mistakes. It wasn't very hard.

The process started with a recruiter reaching out on Linkedin back in December 2011. I had a quick chat with them, and then I moved on to the next steps. This involved a Java programming assignment where I had to create a 10x10 grid of the letter 'i' in Java, with the ability to zoom in and out, and each 'i' had to be a different color. After finishing that, I went through 3 phone interviews in January 2012: 2 with current Sales Engineers and 1 with a Support Manager. These interviews weren't too tough, with not many technical questions, mostly focusing on the sales process and client interaction. Then, I had a face-to-face with the Sales Manager, who had just been hired but seemed really capable and interested. After that, I spoke with the CEO in February 2012, who was really focused on hiring the right people and ensuring qualifications. Finally, they asked for and contacted my references, and I got an offer at the end of February 2012. So, to sum it up: 4 phone interviews, 1 face-to-face, a Java coding task, and a reference check.

The whole interview process involved a few interviews: first, a non-technical remote one, then a technical remote one, and finally a technical on-site interview. Many different things were talked about in the first interview. The other two had coding exercises, hands-on tasks, and technical discussions.