I replied to a posting online, was contacted by the in-house recruiter and given a brief phone screen. A second screening call was scheduled and conducted within a week and I was given a coding challenge that took nearly 7 hours to complete. After completing and submitting it, I was phone screened by a department head in San Francisco, (I live in New York). After the conversation, I was advised that they would be in touch for the next steps. A week later, I was contacted by the recruiter and asked if I would consider a different role. After reading the job description, I agreed. Two days later I had another phone interview with the new department head in San Francisco. 30 minutes after its conclusion, I was contacted and asked to come to San Francisco for a panel interview. I agreed and was advised that I would be contacted with the details. The following Wednesday I was told that my interview was scheduled for Friday morning. Here is where the process deteriorates.
The candidate is required to pay for their travel expenses and is advised that they will be reimbursed immediately at the conclusion of the interview. As this was a last minute roundtrip flight to California, the airfare alone was $1000. I bought the ticket and arrived in San Francisco Thursday night. The hotel arrangements they made required that I check out by 10:30. My 5-hour interview was scheduled from 10:00 to 3:30 PM. The interviewers were one after the other as opposed to a more efficient panel, so I answered that same questions repeatedly. The average age of the interviewers was about 27 and none of them had worked at Databricks for more than 18 months, with one being there only 3 weeks. Three of them were arrogant, condescending, and were more interested in telling me how great they are. There is an art to conducting interviews which is honed with experience; something this group sorely lacks. I was not afforded the opportunity to eat lunch beyond about 1oz of kale that I was trying to eat while being interviewed. (As I am severely hypoglycemic, not eating is an issue for me). By the fourth hour, my concentration had deteriorated so badly from not eating that I had to ask to stop and eat. That request was met with "I'm almost done and there's only one hour left in the schedule."
After the interview, I was met by the recruiter who sent three minuted in the elevator with me to advise me that he'd get in touch with me after the panel convened next week. When I asked about the reimbursement; which is now $1300, I was advised that it would be directly deposited into my account; which was odd because nobody asked for account information. Now, I am advised that it will come in the form of a check in about a month.
While this is a seemingly great place to work, I advise using caution when spending your own money for the privilege of seeing their corporate office and being interviewed. This was the most unprofessional process I have ever experienced and strongly recommend that anybody considering Databricks to take a moment and read ALL of the interview reviews. There is a common thread.
This was the worst interview experience I've ever had.