My interview process consisted of an online logic/intelligence test, a 1 hour phone and online interview, and a 2 hour on-site interview. I was invited back for a second on-site interview but declined.
Online Logic/Intelligence Test
This was a timed test on a website that I accessed from home. It consisted of some basic logic problems (Bob is taller than Sam, Suzy is shorter than Bill, etc.), code reading (report what value this method will return), database questions, and so on. I know nothing about databases, but that section allowed me to say that I'm not experienced there. My only concern about the test is that one problem assumes you know the formula for the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion. I recognized it, but I doubt everyone is familiar with it and that will certainly skew the results for some people. I never received any feedback about how well I did on the test.
Phone/Online Interview
This was done over the phone and with an online tool called CollabEdit. The interviewer didn't call me at the agreed time, so I contacted the company after 15 minutes and he called me shortly afterward. The CollabEdit tool worked well, although it is not a very capable code editor and doesn't help with command completion, auto indenting, etc. He asked me three coding problems. I used C#. It appeared that Java, C# and maybe C++ would have been acceptable for this interview.
Onsite Tour
The office was on the third floor of the D.L. Evans building in downtown Boise. Sections of the Agile Manifesto were displayed on walls in the main hallways. Developers were in four large rooms (that I saw), with 8-12 people in each room. Each work area was a basic table with a computer and two large monitors. Every station appeared to be identical. Tables were side by side with half on each side of the room and a large window at the far end. Developers were young, most in their 20s and 30s. I only saw one woman developer, although I probably saw less than half of the people that worked there.
Strangely, the desks were almost all barren, with no pictures of family, no books or magazines, and blank walls. It was almost as if each work area was interchangeable and an employee just picked one each morning. I was not able to find out if that was the case or if they each had a specific station they worked at. Everyone that I could see appeared to be using the same java development environment tool, with each person typing away and no talking. It was very quiet. Each team room was next to a conference room for that team that contained wall to wall white boards although no one was using any of the rooms while I was there. There were no doors to these rooms, so I wondered if they got noisy at times. There were also several small conference rooms in the center of the building with tables, phones, and doors. In one corner was a large room, called the Coliseum, that reportedly was used for once a week training meetings that all developers attended.
Onsite Interview
The interview lasted from 2:20 to 4:00 PM and consisted of two separate interview sessions, each one with two interviewers in a room with a large whiteboard.
Impressions
They invited me back for another 2 hour interview with more coding questions. I declined because it was obvious by then that the environment and culture of this company didn't align with what I was looking for. Having done a fair amount of hiring and interviewing myself, I found it very strange that they never asked a single question about my resume or any other aspect of my skills. They were laser-focused on whiteboard coding as the decision factor for hiring. I think this is unusual but apparently it works for them.
