A former colleague now at AT&T submitted my resume to the HR department, and within a few days I got a call from a hiring manager for a position similar to one I'd expressed interest in. We scheduled a phone interview that lasted about 30-45 minutes. I prepared by going to the pertinent section of the AT&T site and evaluating the customer experience. The phone interview went well enough that the hiring manager asked me to come in and meet with him in person. The interview lasted a bit more than 90 minutes and was pretty much a follow-up on the things we'd discussed in the phone interview: he gave me an overview of the departmental structure and the product management/development process and explained the challenges the department is facing, he asked some additional questions about my experience and how I'd approach a hypothetical project, I asked some questions about the job and the department, etc. The hiring manager ended the interview by explaining next steps, including how many additional candidates he was interviewing (several), that he would give preference to internal candidates (not unexpected), and that if I made it through to the next round, I would interview with his boss, who'd already rejected 2 out of 3 candidates presented for open positions in the department. I didn't get asked back for the final round of interviews, perhaps because it was clear I thought the product development process sounded overly rigid and complex.

The interview was simple and straightforward, with no unexpected questions. However, the interviewer arrived about 30 minutes late to the scheduled meeting, which impacted the overall impression of the process.