The hiring process at Databricks takes an average of 60 days when considering 2 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Candidates applying for Big Data Architect had the quickest hiring process (on average 60 days), whereas Big Data Architect roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 60 days).
I applied online. I interviewed at Databricks in Jan 2021
Interview
On LinkedIn this role appeared (advert) and I applied. After 4 days an HR Talent recruitment professional sent an email thanking me for applying and requested an introductory call.
The call took place a week after this email. During that phonecall (no video call) the Talent recruiter asked some specific questions about what I had done in my career. It was clear that the Talent recruiter was specifically looking for experience similar to Databricks'. Although my CV is very clear on my background, the Talent recruiter asked quite a lot obvious questions quizzing me some on some basics. We concluded that the Talent recruiter had to check with the hiring manager whether I could be interesting to the team because it could be an issue that I had not worked yet in the context of Big Data. Although my CV was very clear on this, I managed to explain what experience I have with predictive analytics, RPA and Cloud.
The Talent recruiter would come back to me after the weekend.
On Monday after the weekend I received an email from the HR Talent recruiter. They thanked me for showing interest but due to lack of fit from a profile pov. IT was a default format email.
From a company of this size, technical reputation and capabilities I expect more quality. A rejection is fine, but a cheeky email is so wrong. Further, one of the issues of a lot of Software Companies (a common flaw in the European branches) is that they way they search, find, select and qualify candidates is close to pointless. Too often do they seek copies of people they already know/have within the company and focus too heavily specific skillset and that gives the impression that - like Databricks in this case - they overestimate the work that they are doing which eventually leads to turning down great talents.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What sales methodologies have you used or are you trained at?
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We appreciate the effort you put into the interview and are sorry to hear about your experience. Candidate experience is a top priority for us and we are always looking for ways to create a more engaging and tailored experience for our candidates. We would love to learn more about any other feedback you may have. If you’re open to it, please feel free to contact me directly.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Databricks (Londres, Inglaterra) in Jan 2021
Interview
I was contacted by a recruiter at Databricks, London, for the position of pre-sales Solutions Architect. It was a standard process which involved
1. Hiring manager screening
2. Coding assignment
3. Technical video interview
4. Architecture video interview
5. Team member interview
6. Hiring manager video interview
7. Area Vice-President video interview
At the end of the sixth interview, the recruiter told me that I did pretty well in all the rounds, and told me to get references from my previous managers to provide Databricks. Since she already asked me to get the references, I thought that I am offered the position and that the next round is just a formality. I had the final interview the following day after which the recruiter told me that I would receive a response within a couple of days. When I contacted the recruiter, she told me to wait for one week since they wanted to have a catch up internally about the position offered to me. In the end, I never heard back from the recruiter who contacted me initially or Databricks. I have interviewed at many places in the past and landed offers and roles at some very competitive ones. This, by far, was the worst interviewing experience. Learning on what to watch out for. On the positive side, it certainly helped me create better boundaries for the future.
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We appreciate the time that you spent on our interview process and are very sorry to hear about your experience. We hope that as we continue to invest in improving our hiring processes, it will help with some of the feedback provided. Please contact me directly if you would like to share any more feedback you might have.
I applied through other source. I interviewed at Databricks (San Francisco, CA) in Dec 2020
Interview
There were three rounds of interviews, hiring manager screen, first "onsite" with both technical and behavioral questions, and a second onsite with another technical and behavioral panel.
Overall it was a positive experience. The interview panel was friendly and positive. For the technical interviews, it felt like I was working with the interviewer to solve a problem and I had fun doing it
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
As a manager, how have you coached a higher performer to achieve more?