Well, in my situation I was interviewing for two different positions, and the hiring manager presiding over one of them interviewed me for both. Mind you, the hiring manager didn't have a background in technical writing, so that always makes for a unique interview experience.
First, you'll get an automated message telling you to take two online tests, for which you need a webcam so they can verify you're you. One is a personality test to make sure you're not a sociopath, and the next is a competency exam that has question formats like analogies, sequences, etc. If you aren't a good test-taker, you basically bomb out here. I was told by one of the company representatives that it's apparently difficult to pass this test, so perhaps they should reconsider their approach, since it's very similar to the approach used by Dish, which has a reputation for terrible employee experience.
If they're happy with your test results, they'll do a phone interview. During the interview, I was asked to prove I could understand technology, something that's impossible to prove over the phone. There were very few questions about my background and ability to fulfill the job's requirements, and even when I did answer one, the hiring manager forgot my answer and had assumed I didn't have the experience I'd already described and that was also well-defined in my resume.
If you make it through the in-person interview, they'll send you a writing assignment. The assignment asks you to rewrite a terribly written instructional paragraph, describe the difference between authentication and authorization and describe a scenario where you had to solve a technical problem and provide instructions for the solution. It took me only a couple hours, but they told me it would take between 4 and 18 hours. Either way, apparently it was good enough to warrant an in-person interview.
When you show up for your interview, they'll parade you around the building to show off the modern, minimalist interior design and the "free snacks" in the break rooms. Then, they take you to the in-person interview, which for me consisted of the hiring manager as well as 5 members of his team. It seems the writing assignment carries very little weight, since the hiring manager and his team didn't even mention it in the interview (I asked about it later toward the end, and he said it must have been "good enough" since no one brought it up). Instead, they focused on questions like "how are you keeping up with best practices," "do you know what 'minimalism' is," "how do you get along with developers" and "do you prefer to work alone or in a team," none of which demonstrate my accomplishments or ability to excel in the role. The question "describe a time when you really needed to understand the technology behind the documentation" came up again, and again I made a vain effort to describe a solution I'd architected, but it was such a disappointing experience by then that I lost interest in working for the company and started botching answers just to get it over with. The interview ended 45 minutes early as a result.
It's such a pity. It really sounded like a great place to work until I got there. They do a great job recruiting people into the building, but not such a good job keeping them there.
I hope this description helps others who are considering working for Ping Identity!
