I was contacted by one of the technical recruiters for a quick 30 minute chat. The recruiter was super knowledgeable about the company. I would recommend searching into the company yourself prior to this. You can ask the recruiter any question. He will have the answer. So basically, the call is to ramp you up to the company culture, ideals and whatnot and also for you to talk a little about yourself. No technical screen here.
After the call, we immediately set up a time for a technical phone screen. The recruiter quickly set up the meeting and sent me the invitation for a week later.
The technical interviewer (one of the Front-end Managers) contacted right on schedule. He was super friendly and very transparent about what the format was and what he was looking for. The format for this call was: 1 hour long, 5 mins ramp up about each other, 40 mins to answer 1-3 questions and 15 mins to ask questions. The technical interview was challenging in the sense that he challenged me to think outside the box and asked an explanation for everything I did/said. So definitely, stay calm =)
At the end of the technical phone interview, he expressed interest in me and told me that he will send me to the next round and that he will talk to the recruiter.
The next day, I received an e-mail from the technical recruiter to set up an on-site. I live in Sunnyvale, CA but the on-site was in Santa Monica, CA so they offered a remote option for the on-site. We set up the on-site for 2 weeks after. I'm from LA and it was Thanksgiving so I decided to just fly down to tour the campus and to have the on-site there.
The on-site started promptly as scheduled. I received a quick tour in the beginning and then was guided to the interview room where I was met with the Front-end Manager and the Director of Development where I will begin the first round. (They brought some snacks and drinks for us too) I was again summarized with the interview format and what they expected of me. The format will be: 5 minute ramp, 40 mins to think through the question, 15 mins to ask questions and it will be a system design question. Again, they challenged the points I made, asked for pros/cons and encouraged me to think outside the box.
After the first round, the next set of people for the next round came in. I was greeted by a Front-end Engineer and a Senior Front-end Engineer. Also, the Front-end Manager decided to stay for this one too (so that was cool). Again, I was given the format and what they expected of me: 5-min ramp, 40 mins to think through the problem, 15 mins to ask questions and it will be an algorithm problem. Oh, it took some time for the engineers to come so the FEM stuck in a question about CSS vs JS animations =)
After the two rounds, I was greeted by another recruiter who this time showed me the rest of the campus. We said our goodbyes afterwards.
I received the e-mail from the recruiter the following Monday because the on-site was during Thanksgiving break. The e-mail was to mainly set up a time for a follow-up chat. We set up the chat for the following day where he explained to me what they thought of my performance and gave me a potential offer. At this point, you can decide whether you want to continue on to the last round. The potential offer looked good so I agreed to move on to the next round. Immediately, he set up the meeting time with the VP of Dev and CTO for the following week.
The night before the meeting I received an e-mail from the recruiter saying that they needed to reschedule the interview to another time-slot because there was a last minute high-level meeting for the interviewers. Understandable =) So we shifted the time around for a little bit later that day. The VP of Dev and CTO are both very awesome! VP of Dev said "Hey man, so...". Both are super experienced and have stayed with the company for around a decade. They were fun to talk with. The format for this interview was pretty much about my experiences, what I've learned, why I decided to look for another job, where I see myself and a chance to ask some final questions. Each interview lasted for 30 minutes.
The next day, I received an e-mail from the recruiter to set up a time for a follow-up. The follow-up was set for the next day where I was presented the final offer. Negotiation process is chill. Talk to the recruiter and express your thoughts!
Overall, my interview experience with Cornerstone can be summarized by: Great Communication, High Visibility and Smooth.
Good luck and remember to ask questions and stay calm =)