The initial meeting was very informal. Just a general chat about life, family, career successes and aspirations. Overall a very relaxed and positive start to the process.
Following this, I was then invited to present to a 'panel' at the UK HQ in Staines. I was given a standard corporate slide deck and told to go and prepare a 45 minute presentation.
On the day, I arrived at reception 5 minutes early, and was met by a flustered recruitment manager who wasn't expecting me for another hour. A check of both our calendars revealed he was mistaken and I was actually on time.
The panel I was intended to present to, and who I had researched extensively, was not in the office (nothing to do with the 1 hour time difference - they were not in at all that day). So the recruitment manager hastily rounded up three unwilling participants from the office to serve as my panel. Needless to say, a little disconcerting after I had poured a huge amount of effort into preparing for the presentation.
Undeterred, I ploughed through and did my best to remain passionate and enthusiastic, even though the audience spent most of their time discreetly looking at their iPhones under the table.
The 15 minute 'comment and feedback' section at the end was actually 30 seconds of "yes - well done - I need to go now".
Following this experience, I began to wonder if I actually still wanted to work here. The situation was explained away as "we're doing so much recruitment right now, this sometimes happens". So I decided to stick with it.
Next I had a 15 minute face to face with the UK AVP and a telephone interview with the UK MD. Both encounters were relaxed and informal and I found it easy to remain in control of the conversation. Both of them had left Salesforce within 6 months.
Finally another telephone interview with the President of EMEA. On this call, I had been warned to expect such questions as "how many hairs are there on a dog" and "how many bicycle tyres were sold in China last year", but it was nothing like that. Just a straightforward conversation about life, career, family and why I wanted to join Salesforce. However, I have heard that he has used such analytical questions on other interviewees.
I was offered the job and accepted.