Sapient Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – Initial phone screen with HR. Rapidly progressed to three 1 hour interviews in person at varying professional levels. Process was very straight-forward and open. First interview was to determine personality fit with the Sapient culture. Typical questions here about dealing with difficult coworkers, demonstrating situations in which you went above and beyond to persuade others, etc. Second interview was the determine domain expertise. In this area, Sapient domain knowledge is very deep - so I'd suggest being very sharp on your domain prior to the interview. Final session was the most informal with a senior member of the staff - who answers questions and helps you understand how Sapient may be a good fit for your career. So far, this was the most professional, efficient, and organized interview process I've ever been through.

Negotiation Details – Slight negotiation before offer was made. Post offer is made, it is advised not to negotiate further.

Interview Details – You will be given a written scenario that you have to work through by yourself. This scenario involves either solving a business need or a technical need of a hypothetical client. You have to come up with an end to end solution that shows you understood the problem and can come up with a good technical and/or business solution to the problem. After you work on the problem for about 45 minutes to an hour, the interviewers will come back and you have to walk them through your solution and defend your decisions. The rub is that you will not be judged on your business or technical skills or solution. You are judged on your sales skills and your ability to sell this solution to the interviewers.

Interview Details – I was initially contacted by a recruiter via Linked In Email. I emailed him back the same day. The next day he called me and told me a little about the company and a little about the position. When I said I'd be amenable to hearing more, he said someone would contact me.

The following week, I heard from another recruiter who was local to my area (as the initial recruiter was not). I was then scheduled for an interview at the end of that week.

The in person interview was 3 hours long (+/- 20 min). I had a 1:1 with the second recruiter for about 45 min. Then I spoke to a project manager who asked me more specific tech questions for about 20 min. Then a skills assessment/white board presentation test for which I was given an hour, but completed in 40 min. Then an assessment of my test answers by another senior associate which lasted about 45 min.

That was on a friday. On the following tues, the second recruiter called me back to say they loved me but thought I wasn't a great fit for the specific project that I interviewed for, however, I could possibly contract for a different project until a better fit came along. I agreed at a rate I specified.

A week following that I reported for work.

Negotiation Details – Negotiation was rather limited as the initial job fell well within the range I wanted in the first place, and the contract was accepted at the rate I specified with no problems.

Interview Details – Initially I was contacted by the recruiter and interviewed by her, Then I was interviewed by the Senior Manager, Program Management in a week. Once I cleared this I was asked to come for an inperson interview with a bunch of folks. I had to do a Project Plan for a web site development/redesign. Once I did that I had another PM interview me. Then I was given the go ahead by the recruiter, and then asked to meet with the Director. It was straight forward and the interview did not pan out ok, saying one of the skills was lacking. Then I was set up to interview at Chicago and then I got the job after a couple more of phone interview.

the process for Sapient is very gruelling and once in the company you realize how important the interviews are.

Negotiation Details – I was looking for a job and did not negotiate a lot, but got a fair deal.

Interview Details – I received a call from the recruiter from Sapient. I had a detailed conversation with the gentlemen. He explained what the company was about and its overall culture there. I was then brought in for a three plus hour long interview. The first part was personality exam. It was pretty standard (tell me about yourself, etc.) face-to-face initial interview. The second part was to solve a business problem that comprised of five questions. The third was to present your solutions to the team lead.

Overall, I think the experience was good. I just wished I had a bit more time to think about the business problems. It composed of data-model, writing psuedo-code, planning out the project, and also test cases.

To be honest, I initially thought I did very well. I was able to solve the problems and presented them accordingly to the team lead. The questions made you think at a very high level. Their feedback was that I lacked enough technical experience, which totally threw me off-guard. I just wished they would of asked more technical questions, show I can show them my experiences. I was disappointed about that.

Interview Details – The Sapient recruiter in Boston missed the phone screen and missed appt twice. I had called my employee who referred me and then the recruiter spoke to me.

Interview :they gave project case and asked me to take an business objective into deliverable solution using arch diagrams and project plans.Very agile oriented firm and multiple million project expertise is valued. Think about splitting up into phases to avoid delivery risk...

The executives had less time <20 minutes after case discussion to talk to me. They interviewed me for Sr Mgr -Prog Mgmt and after the interview told me that I was fit for Mgr -Prog Mgmt. ( Thye do all for positiosn) Then they scheduled phone and the person missed the interview twice. I got a verbal offer from Director and 2 days HR told me that I was not selected

Lousy UN professional HR I have ever seen.

Beware of Sapient unprofessional HR practices .Don’t know how the work culture will be?

Interview Details – It was not tough , the questions were repetitve in nature as what they asked last year.
had a phone round followed by two techinical and 1 HR. Technical rounds were of 2 hr each , 1 hr was given for writing solutions to two problems and rest for discussion on the solution

Interview Details – After receiving a glowing (I guess) recommendation from a former colleague who currently works there, a member of the recruiting team phoned me up one day and scheduled a phone interview. I can't remember what all that entailed, but it was pretty high level. After that, I was scheduled to come up for a vis a vis. They did mention that this would be a three hour or so process, which was something that threw me for a loop.

The first part of the face to face had a quick skills assessment which took about a half an hour. Just really to make sure I knew what I was doing and was consistent with what was on my resume.

A 'personality' interview followed which lasted about an hour. This was pretty much run of the mill stuff...Describe challenging situations and how I mitigated that challenge. What are my strengths and weaknesses. Do I like to work alone, or in a group and why. Lots of questions, but appropriate and not a whole lot that threw me off guard.

Then, I was given a business case to present to a group of decision makers. I had an hour to prepare and an hour to present. Very challenging. Essentially, I had to give Sapient's perspective on how to solve a business problem and reduce customer service costs while maintaining superior customer service. Essentially, a big whiteboard exercise. I was given some background including financials and history of the company. There was 6 questions I had to answer as part of the exercise. So as you might guess, I segmented them accordingly on the whiteboard and incorporated into my presentation :-)

Negotiation Details – In the process but seems to be going well...

Interview Details – To preface, I am a former employee at Sapient who left on good terms so my interview process may be out of the norm. I was contacted by a recruiter via LinkedIn. I responded within a few days, but did not hear back for a couple of weeks. I probably would have had to wait longer, except I personally reached out to some friends still at the company to give the recruiter a little nudge.

When the recruiter finally contacted me, he set up an interview fairly quickly. The on-site interview consisted of 3, 1-hour segments which included a personality test, a technology "problem" sheet, and finally a presentation in which you solved the previously mentioned problem.

The personality test consisted of questions revolving around the typical "how do you work in a team environment" or "how did you handle failure" questions. The technology test wasn't particularly challenging, but they are working on more a complicated problem for future interviews.

The office culture has not changed a bit since I left which is definitely a good thing. My interviewers were friendly, engaged, and very fond of their employer. There is a game room with foosball, darts, and pool, which I did not have a chance to play in. From my past experience, the personnel there is top notch and full of very bright, young professionals.

My biggest complaint with the process revolves around their contracted HR department. First, the initial lag time when they contacted me (this is an important point) and when they finally got around to scheduling an interview (or even acknowledging I was alive) is unacceptable.

Second, their HR department definitely tried to give me a "hard sell." Their initial slogan was "we're hiring, bet you don't hear that too much these days" or something along that line, and they definitely tried to use that as a negotiating chip. I was told that my salary expectations weren't realistic and that I should be happy with whatever they offered. When I pushed back, they made it seem like it was a huge hassle to go up the food chain to get me what I wanted, and the recruiter then tried to point out that I was "leaving my company for a reason, so take that into consideration."

Except I wasn't the one who made the first move and they had contacted me. At that point I duly reminded her of who had contacted whom first and how I am still perfectly happy at my current employer. Additionally, their base salary would only MATCH what I currently made, which ultimately didn't cover the cost of jumping ship. At that point the conversation became much friendlier and the pressure tactics stopped.

Reason for Declining – The HR department was one of the reasons why I left the company in the first place (false promises, not following through, etc). The actual consultants at Sapient are top notch. Additionally, the compensation is mediocre at best, and my title would be a step down from what I currently am doing.