-Phone screen
-Panel interview
I was contacted directly by hiring manger (not Recruiter/HR) to schedule a phone screen.
I found out a family member had tragically died about 2 hrs before the screen was trying to figure out if I should reschedule or do the interview.
Decided to do the phone screen as I didn't want to bring personal business into the interview and completely bombed it. This is where it would have been helpful to have a HR business partner involved because I likely would've felt more comfortable rescheduling if I had HR as a buffer to guide this convo vs my potential manager.
Even though I bombed the interview, SN and the role seemed great and I was still interested. I still sent a follow up letter to say thank you for the time and for interviewing me.
A few weeks later I unexpectedly received an invite to come onsite for interview from hiring manager with four options for times. I ranked the times to my preference then received a cal invite for my second preference with a note that had the office address and a cell if I needed help getting in. No other information about if this was a presentation, who I was interviewing with, etc. Again, would have been great to have HR business partner to give more info about the process.
Arrived at the interview to have 3, 1 hour interviews with current SAMs. The team was lovely and kind - no technical questions were asked which was surprising to me. Each just went over their job/a lot of repetitive information was shared. I didn't mind it though and it was great to hear from their perspective on the role. I felt I could perform the role well.
One thing to note, the hiring manager had flown in from San Diego for these interviews yet didn't meet with me. I even requested to introduce myself and was told he/she was busy.
I understand schedules are busy, but if you're flying in for interviews wouldn't you pencil in at least 1-2 minutes to pop in when each interviewee is there - especially given the 3 hour interview? This gave me the vibe I wasn't a 'top pick' for the role.
I sent all 3 SAMs a thank you email as well as the hiring manager and complimented his/her team. They truly were great and I would've loved working with them.