Professional week long series of interviews ranging from informal peer to peer chats to detailed conversations with director level/leadership. Felt very equipped after the process. Clear insight to role, culture, and compensation. All in all, good experience.

Phase 1 – Phone Screening A recruiter reached out to schedule the phone interview which lasted about 30 min. I was told the importance of their culture and we spoke more about that than the job itself. Initially I was very excited about this role and couldn't wait to move through the process. Phase 2 –  Phone Interview with Hiring Manager Talked to the hiring manager about the specifics of the role. We got along great and I had tons of experience that fit with the role. Phase 3 – On-site Interview You're going to Hollywood baby! Weird thing - in the official Netflix interview itinerary email it stated that you may not last the entire day and be asked to leave at any point. I was like 'Ummmm..what?' Super creepy and stressful. Not really normal whatsoever but let's roll with it. Netflix paid for me to fly down to Los Angeles. Trip included a plane ticket, rental car, one night at the Hotel Rosevelt and food. So far I was beyond excited and was feeling the vibe. I arrived at Netflix LA HQ and was really impressed with their offices and location in general. I was greeted by an HR rep and was escorted to an interview room. So far, so good. The interviews lasted about 8 hours with 30min-1 hour conversations per person. They were a mixture of video Google calls to Los Gatos and face-to-face with folks from the LA office. Overall the conversations were enlightening and thoughtful. A few people tried to trip me up along the way but didn't think much of it. Things started to get weird when a recruiter entered the room after about 4 hours of interviews and drilled me on culture. It felt like every answer I had was wrong and I couldn't understand why this person showed up to just pick at me and try to trip me up. She was actually rude if I am being honest. After that the hiring manager came back into the room and wanted to clarify some of the things I said to this rude recruiter. At this point I was going in to damage control mode and was stressing out a little. So what did I say? Basically that I didn't fire people. Even though I have let 2 people I managed go in the past, it wast good enough. They wanted brutal blunt force and kept talking about ensuring we have a 'high performing team' environment. Reflecting back, all the culture questions really boiled down to survival and what was my threshold for letting people go and providing fearful feedback to the creative team. Another weird thing that happened on culture - They asked me specifics about Netflix culture and wanted me to almost recite parts of it back to them. Luckily I carefully read it and tried to provide examples back to them on how awesome it was. I told them about how some of my current colleagues don't like to share documents and keynote presentations and how I understand why Netflix had an open share/collaboration rule. That was a TRIGGER and they grilled me on this in detail. I kept saying 'I'm against keeping documents under wraps and not sharing' again and again but it was like they liked the fact my current company culture had some issues. Again I kept reiterating how against that behavior I was but was too late. They got me. What an un-hirable person I must be, oh my! At this point I was thinking 'Ok here is where they ask me to leave just like the email warned me about' but I lasted the entire day. The last interview was with an HR Director and AGAIN we went over culture. Lot's of trick questions looped in and felt like everyone was trying to lead me into incorrect answers, then get irritated if I didn't say the right thing. One weird question was about failure and they wanted details about a time I failed. I gave them an honest answer and did my best to turn it into a positive. Whatever. He let me know that at Netflix you will receive lots of honest feedback from your peers and was I ok with this. "Oh of course!!" I said with a smile on my face. In my head I'm thinking 'what kind of jerks work here'? Why can't we just do our best and stop psychoanalyzing each-other!!?? I was totally exhausted and couldn't imagine talking to another soul for the rest of my life. I flew back home and still wanted the job even though I some some weird bumps in the interview process. I really tried my best and would give Netflix 100%. I wrote a thank you email to the hiring manager. Crickets. A few days later I wrote direct messages to other folks I met. Crickets. Another few days go by, a few more thank you emails and question on next steps to HR. Crickets. Finally got a voicemail from the 1st recruiter telling me I didn't get the job. I know why – it's because of my culture question mis-steps. Again they wanted a manager to fire others and instill fear for other to perform. At the end of the day I'm relieved I didn't get the job since I myself would have been fired for not being the right type of manager at Netflix. So the weird crazy process played out in its abusive strange way for the best.