Looking for some perspective from recruiters/hiring managers, particularly those who work with senior-level professional positions.

I recently completed a final panel interview for a Principal-level position that I’m extremely interested in. I have about 9 years of directly relevant experience, exceed the minimum experience requirement, have both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and believe my background aligns very closely with what they’re looking for.

I had an initial interview with the hiring executive, which went very well, and was advanced to a four-person final panel. Before the final interview, the recruiter also allowed me to provide supplemental materials to the panel, including professional recommendations and a 90-day plan for the position.

The final interview was last Friday and, from my perspective, it genuinely could not have gone much better. I answered every question with specific examples from my experience, handled the follow-ups well, and received positive comments about my instincts and thought process. The conversation became very natural, with plenty of back-and-forth, humor, and discussion about the organization and its culture. I left feeling extremely confident about both my performance and the fit.
The hiring executive had previously mentioned wanting to fill the position ASAP.

It’s now Wednesday, and I haven’t heard anything. On Monday, I sent the recruiter a brief email asking if they could provide a rough timeline for a decision or next steps because I have some upcoming decisions/administrative items with my current employer. No response yet.
I’m not planning to follow up again right now. What I’m trying to understand is what could be happening behind the scenes.

For recruiters/hiring managers:
- Is 3 business days of silence after a final panel completely normal, even when the company wants to hire quickly?
- If the panel selected its candidate, what normally happens internally before that person actually gets the call?
- Could compensation/HR approvals explain several days of complete silence?
- Would you read anything into the recruiter not responding to the timeline question?
- At what point would the silence actually start making you question the outcome?

Obviously, I have no idea who else interviewed or how they performed. I’m not assuming the job is mine simply because I felt good about the interview. I’m mainly struggling to reconcile an interview that felt exceptionally strong, and included several positive signals, with suddenly hearing absolutely nothing afterward.

For those who have been on the recruiting side, what would you make of this timeline?

As a hiring manager, I once joined an interview and the applicant was still getting dressed when I accepted her into the Zoom room. She was in her closet in a cut off white tee trying to choose what to wear. I tried to talk to her over and over and I guess she had her speakers muted or something cause she wouldn't respond... I didn't know if I should leave or not (This all happened within 60 seconds) she eventually picked out a jacket and came over and started the interview... like nothing happened. She also was a terrible applicant... I asked her what her salary range was and she said "Whatever the max is, that is what I want" and then I asked her what she considered to be her strongest skills (in network engineering) and she said "whatever was on job posting" ... she did not get the job and it was a terrible experience for everyone.

What are some memorable things you said in your interview that got you the job? This is specifically for s@K locations but I’m open to feedback

I had an interview with Instawork today for an internship role , and honestly, this was probably the weirdest interview experience I've had so far.

I spent basically my entire day preparing for this. I went through the JD properly, researched the company, studied the role, prepared questions around iOS, Apple ID, SD cards, data transfer, SOP, troubleshooting scenarios, my projects, my skills, etc. I also spent money on petrol and travelling to the venue.

This was supposed to be a proper interview, and I was mentally prepared for it.

But the actual interview lasted maybe 5–10 minutes.

The interviewer was in a huge hurry. He didn't even ask me for a self-introduction. I had prepared my introduction and everything, but I literally didn't get a chance to give it.

He asked a couple of questions and moved on very quickly. There wasn't really any discussion about my projects, experience, or anything else.

The weirdest part happened after the interview.

There was an HR person handling the candidates. From what I saw, after each candidate finished, HR would check something and tell them whether they were shortlisted or rejected.

When I finished, I was just standing there waiting because nobody told me what to do. I eventually asked the HR person something like:

"Should I go or should I stay here?"

She hadn't even checked my status at that point. Then she suddenly looked and said something along the lines of:

"Oh, okay, okay... sorry, you guys are rejected."

And that was it.

I understand getting rejected. That's completely fine. I've been rejected before and I'll probably be rejected many more times. That's part of job hunting.

What pissed me off was the way the whole thing was handled.

I spent the entire day preparing and travelling there, and I didn't even feel like I actually got interviewed. It almost felt like I was just there so they could complete a procedure/checklist.

I'm not saying I deserved the job or that I should have been selected. Maybe I wasn't a good fit. Maybe they had already shortlisted enough people. Maybe the position was already almost filled. I genuinely don't know.

But if that's the case, why make candidates spend an entire day travelling to the venue?

Maybe I'm overreacting because I'm still frustrated right now, but has anyone else experienced interviews like this?

Is this normal for internship hiring, or was this just a particularly badly handled interview process?

I recently received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter saying they were looking for a Senior Fivetran Data Engineer. I agreed to interview, and honestly, the experience was quite unexpected.

The interview was rescheduled six times within five days. Each time, there was a different reason — sometimes the panel had a production issue, sometimes the interviewer was sick, and sometimes there was a family emergency.

Finally, the interview was scheduled for the evening of 15 August, and the interviewer joined.

With 3+ years of experience working for a PBC client, I was expecting some meaningful, role-specific questions around Fivetran, data engineering, pipelines, CDC, troubleshooting, or real-world scenarios.

Instead, the interviewer initially asked me which technologies I had experience with. I noticed she was clicking through something and seemed to be checking off different areas. She asked about API experience, data warehousing, and a couple of other technologies.

Then she went offline for a while.

When she came back, the questions suddenly became extremely difficult — almost architect-level system design questions on the topics she had just asked about. The transition was honestly quite surprising.

Even the constant clicking, scrolling, and typing sounds were very noticeable, and it genuinely felt like the questions were being generated or assisted by AI during the interview.

At one point, I actually interrupted and asked, “Do you think this question is relevant to the role?” She fumbled a little and eventually changed the question. 😂

The whole experience was honestly more funny than frustrating at that point.

My question is: if a company isn't able to arrange a legitimate and prepared interviewer for a role, why waste the candidate's time?

Candidates also invest time, preparation, and energy into these interviews. Rescheduling an interview six times in five days and then conducting an interview that doesn't seem aligned with the role is not a great candidate experience.

Anyway, it was definitely one of the more unusual interview experiences I've had. 😂

I feel like*

I just finished my final interview and honestly, I feel so defeated.

I stayed with my previous company for 7 months before parting ways, and almost half of the interview was about my previous employment. The HM kept asking if I passed a med cert, if I stayed in constant communication with my CSAM, and even asked, “From June 20 to July 2, did you inform your CSAM about your situation?”

I kept saying yes because I genuinely did. But she would laugh a little or make sarcastic reactions after my answers, and it made me feel like she thought I was lying. I started feeling like she was trying to corner me, and it completely threw me off.

I became nervous, overly conscious, and my enthusiasm just disappeared. Communication is actually one of my strengths, but I feel like I wasn’t able to show that at all.
Later, she asked about my motivation and I literally just said, “my daughter.” By then, I already felt like the interview was going badly.

Then she asked, “If you don’t pass, what will you do then?” And honestly, that just made me feel like I already knew the outcome.

I’m so sad because I know I could’ve done better. I prepared so much for this, and I hate that I wasn’t able to show the version of myself I knew I could be.
Now I’m just waiting for the rejection email. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but damn… it hurts knowing I could’ve done better.

Hey, everyone! This is my first time in this subreddit, but I have a timely question and would love some feedback. TYIA!

Backstory… I had an interview for a communications position at a local university, and I love the institution itself. My wife attended and I have lots of friends on campus myself. I made it through the HR screen, the Zoom interview with the hiring manager, and then a 3-hour interview in-person with a panel and 4 other VPs and AVPs in the specific department I was applying for. I believe the decision was between me and one other candidate.

Other than a few hiccups, I thought it went extremely well. Until I followed up a few days after the deadline I was told, only to find out that they extended the offer to the other candidate the day prior to me following up. I was devastated. This was becoming a “dream job” for me, especially with the time I dedicated to preparing for interviews.

The hiring manager is amazing, and he offered to meet with me to discuss the future, their decision with this position, or even to be a reference on future job applications. It was recommended to me by a friend that I ask to meet up with the hiring manager for coffee, in order to meet 1-1. He agreed, and we‘re meeting this upcoming Friday morning.

There are no posted positions in this department at the moment, but I want to be considered for the university at some point. What sorts of questions should I be asking him, other than feedback on the interview and tips he has for me?

Hi guys, I am currently interviewing for a position and I was reached out by the HR to apply for this position. Within 2 days of applying i had my introductory interview. And during the interview, I was told that they would love for me to meet their team for a second interview next week. I was sent the next interview information and link within 8 minutes of ending the screening. The hR who reached out to me to apply for this job said they want to have a meeting with me before the second interview to prep me for it. I wanted to know if this normal and a good sign?

I recently took the Google Hiring Assessment (GHA) and passed.
Before attempting it, I looked around Reddit for experiences/tips but found only a few useful posts, so I thought I’d share what seemed to work for me for anyone who still has their assessment coming up.

The assessment had 3 types of questions:
1. “Most Like Me / Least Like Me” statements
You’re given 3 statements and have to select one that is Most Like You and one that is Least Like You.
I found this to be the trickiest part because sometimes all three statements sound positive and you might feel like all of them are “Most Like You.”
My advice: don’t overthink it. Go with your first instinct and, most importantly, STAY CONSISTENT. You’ll come across similar statements later in the assessment, sometimes worded differently.

2. Agree / Disagree statements
These are more straightforward. Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, etc.
What seemed to work for me: if I clearly agreed or disagreed with something, I generally went with Strongly Agree or Strongly Disagree rather than softening the answer unnecessarily.
Again, consistency matters. Similar ideas/statements can show up more than once.

3. Situational questions
You’re given workplace situations and have to select your Most Likely and Least Likely approach.
Read these carefully. Try to understand what the situation is actually testing - collaboration, ownership, communication, prioritization, dealing with ambiguity, etc. - and keep your approach consistent across different scenarios.

For preparation:
I did a couple of very short mock sessions with Claude first (around 3 questions each), followed by a couple with Gemini.
I wouldn’t over-practice. A few mock sessions should be enough once you understand the format and get comfortable thinking through the trade-offs.

These are just my observations from my own attempt, not an official formula for passing the GHA. The biggest things that seemed to help me were not overthinking individual questions and being consistent in how I approached similar situations.
To everyone who still has their assessment coming up - hope this helps, and best of luck!

This might come across as a little rude, but I genuinely felt that the interview panel was quite judgmental.

I come from a remote place, and despite that, I was able to secure a good percentile and get shortlisted for the interview. So naturally, I was expecting the conversation to focus on how I built my profile and got to this point.

Instead, some of the comments from the panel left me quite uncomfortable.

They said things like,

"How did you make it this far when you’re from such a remote place? "

"Good that you made it this far, but good luck ahead. I hope you’ve filled some good colleges in the CAP rounds as well."

I mentioned that I had only filled my top 3-4 choices because I was specifically looking for good education. My previous degree was also from a Tier 1/Tier 1.5 college, so I wasn't really looking to compromise on that. In case I dont get as per my expectations I am ready to repeat as well.

The response I got was, "You should have filled the others too. You already have a good percentile (97.something). What if you don't get these next time? "

Maybe they didn't intend it this way, but it came across to me as, “You got lucky this time, so don't assume you can do it again.”

How can someone make such assumptions about a candidate based purely on where they come from? Coming from a remote place doesn't automatically mean someone lacks the capability to reach a certain level.

I was also surprised that the interview barely focused on my resume. They asked questions that felt largely unrelated to my profile, and whenever I tried to provide context or support my answers with examples from my past experiences, I was frequently interrupted or those points were simply ignored.

I went into the interview expecting to have a conversation about my journey, achievements, and how I built my profile to this point. Instead, I came out feeling like the panel had already made certain assumptions about me before I could properly explain myself.

Maybe I'm thinking too much about it, but the overall experience felt unnecessarily dismissive and judgmental.

I recently interviewed with Salesforce for a role I was genuinely excited about. The opportunity looked compelling, and given my current scope and experience, I felt I had a strong and relevant background for what they were looking for.

Unfortunately, the interview itself was a rather different experience.

There were two interviewers. One was particularly authoritative, dismissive and unnecessarily condescending. The conversation repeatedly veered from assessing my experience into questioning, dismissing and, at times, seemingly attempting to undermine it.

I don’t have a problem with challenging interview questions. In fact, I welcome them. If you’re interviewing for a senior role, you should expect your thinking, judgment and depth of experience to be tested.

But there is a difference between challenging a candidate and trying to diminish them.

The second interviewer appeared almost completely disengaged for large parts of the conversation, which made the overall experience even stranger. One interviewer seemed intent on proving that my experience wasn’t as substantial as I believed it was, while the other seemed barely invested in assessing it.

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

In my current role, I operate at a scope that, in several respects, is considerably broader than what this position appeared to require. I lead complex programs, manage significant stakeholder ecosystems, operate strategically as well as operationally, and deal with challenges that extend well beyond the relatively narrow pieces of experience being tested during this interview.

Of course, that doesn’t automatically make me the right candidate. Experience isn’t a substitute for fit, and I have absolutely no issue with being rejected.

What I do find questionable is the quality of the assessment.

If you’re going to interview someone with 15+ years of experience, including substantial experience operating at scale, the expectation should be that you’re trying to understand the depth and context of that experience — not simply looking for opportunities to tell the candidate why what they’ve done doesn’t count.

At some point, an interview stops being a rigorous assessment and starts becoming a reflection of the person conducting it.

And perhaps that’s what happened here.

I walked into the conversation genuinely interested in the opportunity and walked out thinking less about whether I wanted the role and more about whether the people conducting the assessment had actually understood the level at which I currently operate.

Maybe I wasn’t the right fit. That’s entirely possible.
Maybe the interviewers had a very specific profile in mind that I didn’t match. Also fair.

But if the objective was to assess whether I could operate at the level required for the role, I left unconvinced that my experience had actually been assessed, only that it had been questioned rather aggressively.

That’s a very different thing.

I’m curious to hear from people who have interviewed with Salesforce, particularly at the senior level. Was this an isolated experience, or is this representative of the interview culture there?

Does job hunting here in Qatar mean that, in every interview, you have to be the best speaker in the history of galaxies and planets?

I prepare well for every interview. I research, prepare my answers, and speak in the best way I possibly can. Then, during the interview, they seem interested in me, the conversation goes well, and after that… nothing.

So what am I doing wrong?

Do you have to somehow know what the interviewer is thinking and give the answers exactly the way they want to hear them? Do you have to say the answers they are dreaming of?

What exactly are they looking for?
I genuinely want to understand how this works.

THERE ! i said it. interviews should be conversational, it is an exchange of words to get to know u more. how can u sell yourself if u treat it as if u are performing, memorizing scripts?? if at this point u can not hold conversations, maybe u should work on ur social and communication skills first instead of applying just to fumble ur interviews. u are risking offers that u couldve get! 🤥

Mai aaj interview Dene gya tha waise mere pass 3 + year ka experience hai . Par waha pura hug💩 ke aa gya . Usne bas mujhe ah kaha tha ki digital clock banao woh bhi bina canvas ka . Aur mai ne kay likha code me

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Woh to sukar hai mere muh pe laptop le kar nhi mara 🤧

I'm currently in a frustrating spot (and I know a lot of people here are, too). I'm able to pass initial recruiter screens, technical assessments, and even make it all the way through end-to-end final interview loops—only to get the dreaded "we went with another candidate" email at the very end.

If you are someone who went through a streak of reaching multiple final rounds without landing the job, but finally broke the cycle and got the offer:

• What do you think actually changed for that specific company? Was it a mindset shift, how you answered questions, or how you approached the team/panel rounds?
• Did you change how you prepared for technical vs. behavioral discussions? * Are there any specific tips, tricks, or subtle things you started doing in that final round that turned a "maybe" into a "yes"?

Reaching the final round repeatedly feels like doing 90% of the work with nothing to show for it. Would love to hear any insights, advice, or stories from those who managed to cross the finish line!

I'm at 5 YoE and prepping for senior roles, and I realized the best learning comes from real questions that actually catch experienced candidates off-guard. Not the "implement LRU cache" kind (everyone preps those), but the nuanced, "wait... actually I'm not 100% sure" questions that separate mid-level from senior thinking.

So if you're on the interviewer side (especially senior hiring managers): drop your favorite tricky iOS question. The ones where:

• Senior candidates freeze or give half-answers (that's the tell)
• The surface answer sounds right but misses a critical production edge case
• It exposes the gap between "I've shipped features" and "I understand the system deeply"
• It's not about memorization—it's about reasoning under pressure and knowing why systems break
• Bonus: questions that reveal whether someone has actually debugged production issues or just read blog posts

And for others prepping: this thread should become a vault of real questions people actually ask at Tier-1 companies.

Drop yours! And if you have a follow-up twist that makes it even trickier, include that too.

Bonus points if you share:

• What the "obvious" wrong answer is (the one a mid-level would confidently give)
• Why it's wrong (not just "correct answer is X" — the reasoning)
• What separates a good answer from a staff-level answer
• What company/level you see this at (FAANG? fintech? enterprise? scale matters)
• How you follow up when someone fumbles (what redirection questions diagnose the gap?)

Thanks in advance—this is gold for interview prep.

I have an interview coming up in Seatrium. Please can somebody help With feedback for Seatrium for employee like pro and cons.

I literally f**ked up my interview, i prepared well , i practiced well..but when I sat in front of my hr , everything is vanished like a snap from Thanos. He asked questions, i know the answer but I can't able to tell 😭😭. Its like something struck in my throat.