I applied to ESRI sometime between June and July because I have a strong GIS background and love the industry. The entire interview process is very smooth and professional and I accepted the offer. First there was a phone screen. I got contacted by a recruiter in August about a QA role in an interesting team. The HR recruiter is very professional and started the process off nicely by asking many questions on your experiences and behaviors - how you have handled difficult situations and what would you response in a certain work scenario, etc. The phone screen was 1 hr.
A few days later, the recruiter followed up and let me know that the manager of the team wishes to speak with me. It was also a very pleasant call and I enjoyed the conversation, I got a better idea of what I would be doing for the team and the history of this ESRI product.
Then it comes the on-site interview in Redlands. They paid for the flight, hotel, food, shuttle/car rental, very generous and easy process for you to claim your other expenses. The interview is from 8:30 to 5 (it ended at 6 for me) so you know you need to keep your energy up, but it went much quicker than I anticipated. Many people complain here about how long the process was, how 'redundant' and 'repetitive' the questions they asked are, but they only did this because they want to know if you are an individual everyone wants to work with. It matters to them and it matters to the candidate as well. They do not want to hire someone they want to terminate later, you also don't want to be in a team you want to quit soon after you started. The company is built on relationships, projects and they want the people who come on board share the same vision. They asked technical questions about testing methodologies, programming concepts and fundamentals but more often than being tested, I found myself enjoying the conversation and was happy about how we exchanged professional experiences and understanding of the industry. The interview was long but it was a great chance for me to understand what the team needs, rather what they require me to complete. I am positive that I will learn many things here and all my would-be colleagues are very open to what they do and how they can help you. They have a great culture that is supportive to self-investment and most companies do not have such an environment and I appreciated them for taking their time to evaluate my fit to the team. I felt like even I did not land an offer, I would be happy with the insights I got from that day and the all paid trip to visit their HQ.
A week after the interview, I accepted their offer.