Bazaarvoice Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX).

Interview

The interview process started with a scheduled phone interview with a Management team member in your department. The 2nd part was back-to-back interviews with 4 team members, including your prospective manager. The final/3rd part was a presentation relevant to your role. Overall I thought it was a great & challenging process and really helped me make the decision to work with a great team/company.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX) in September 2009.

Interview

Yesterday I had my onsite interview, where I spoke for 30 minutes each with: 1) the hiring manager; 2) manager of a related work group; and, 2) a would be colleague/fellow Commercial Relations Director. This onsite followed two initial phone interviews, first by the internal recruiting manager, then by the hiring manager. If I had made it through yesterday's round, then I would have gone on to some type of scenario role play "test."
While I was very disappointed in the outcome, I was pleased:
1. That the process was so quick. Although the initial phone interview with the recruiting manager was scheduled for more than 2 weeks out, once held, I was in the system. After speaking with the recruiting manager, she had me speak with the hiring manager the very next day. Following this second call, I was onsite for interviews within 2 business days. And, while not the answer I wanted, I received word in less than 24 hours that I wasn't going to move forward in the process.
2. When I asked for feedback on the interviews, that the recruiting manager picked up the phone and provided personal, meaningful feedback on the interviews, where I faltered, and what I could do to improve. When was the last time that a company actually responded to any request; or if responded, felt that their hands were tied and couldn't say anything. The insights were very helpful.
3. To learn that my instincts were right...Bazaarvoice is a place where I would want to work.
As hard as the lessons were, I learned that:
1. Anything said negatively about a former employer (red flag, right?!), no matter how remote or inconsequential, is a severe no no! Even when I used an example of how I turned around the relationship with one of our largest clients, I should not have said something to the effect that, "Part of the reason we got into that situation to begin with, was that as the leader in our market niche, we, as an organization, had become somewhat arrogant." Really made sense in the context of the story...but any negativity is not to be tolerated.
2. The three interviewers each have specific tasks/areas to watch for. It's not just a matter of finding out who is available to check the guy out.
While it's difficult for many to get to the initial phone interview stage, once there, the overall process was extremely well-run.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX) in March 2010.

Interview

Process was fairly rapid. Got contacted by recruiter who asked me some challenging questions for an initial phone screen. She then recommended that I move onto the next round which consisted of 3 minute face to face interviews with the hiring manager, a VP, and a VP of an interrelated area. These interviews took place about 4 days later and were back to back. The recruiter was good but not great in returning queries/emails. She cancelled our first phone screen by calling about 30 minutes late and moving it to the next day. I understand people get called into meetings, but this was still very unprofessional.

All three interviews consisted of basic behavioral interview questions. "Tell me about a time you had to overcome adversity" etc. There is a strong focus on product knowledge, competitor knowledge (PowerReviews), and general UGC strategy and use in the market place.

Next I was required to do a mock presentation that basically said present to us like you are a BV sals person and we are a VP of merchandising who has 2nd hand knowledge of BV products. I ended up presenting to 6 people. In this section it is important that you are able to come up with the general script they tell to clients and stay on task when they try to ask you questions. The questions they ask you are typical in a sales presentation. If you are able to stick to the value of the product and not be afraid to say "i dont know" when you dont know the answer then you will be fine. My issue was that I generally sell from a white board because i usually know my product better than anyone in the room. In this case, I did not know their product as well as them and was forced to use a slide deck which is unnatural for me. My presentation was disjointed and without logical flow because I tried to answer questions as they come up as I would in a white board type presentation. Make sure you control the room and address questions at the end if necessary.

After the pres they huddled for about 10 minutes and came back in the room to tell me they were not moving forward in the process. This was nice to get instant feedback and be treated like a "man" rather than just be ignored like many do now in talent acquisition.

Most of the information required for these steps can be gleaned by reading the blog. BV seems to prefer candidates that are high energy, and very enthusiastic about UGC. It is an interesting company. Some might term the culture a bit cultish. I will admit that I am disappointed that I did not get the offer but it was probably for the best. They use terms like "we are looking for a rock star" a lot and there is a lot of high-fiveing in the office. It seemed a bit sophomoric to me and I think that as they move towards an IPO, they are going to have to "grow up" a little as an organization. It is hard to describe, but imagine being surrounded by a bunch of mid 20 somethings at 4:45 on a Friday that are itching to go out to happy hour. Coming from a large, mature sales org, it just seemed immature and I have questions about their ability to run a 1000+ person company. As far as I know, no one in the c level of the organization has ever managed a company that is the size they are now, much less what they will be.

If you want to get a good model of what BV is going to look like post IPO check out Rackspace as a reference. It too was in hyper growth and is now having big time growing pains as they adjust to the demands placed on them as a public company.

Also, I had some concerns about the model they are using. They are getting hammered on the low end by PowerReviews as they give away the software for "free" and monetize the data vs monetizing the SaaS. This is similar to the OSS movement one sees in the rest of the software world which is playing major havoc on the IBMs, Oracle, SAPs et. al. I think that PowerReviews is going to be a much bigger problem for BV unless they start to do invest more time in the data that is in house.

Finally, they pay well below market. Pay was discussed on the first call at 150OTE. I continued with the interview process knowing this would not work for me with hopes that I could negotiate it up should I get the offer.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX) in October 2009.

Interview

I had a phone screen and was told immediately what the position paid (which I thought was low) and that it required at least 50-60 hours per week. The whole thing seemed very curt, the interviewer asked me only one question- what I would do if a salesperson wanted me to sign a contract because no one with signature authority was in the office at the time. She asked if I had any questions and when I asked them it sort of seemed like she didn't really understand them. She told me the way their hiring process worked was that she met with the interviewing people at the end of each day and they decided who they wanted to interview and that she would let me know either way first thing the next morning. Cool I thought, at least I'll know either way. I heard nothing until 10 days later when I got an email that they had already hired someone.

This may very well be a good place to work but it didn't feel like a good fit for me. I know that this is an employer's market but underpaying people and expecting them to work ridiculous hours does not breed loyalty, if I had been offered a job there I would have taken it and then bailed at the first better offer that came along.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice in January 2015.

Interview

Applied though the company website. Received an email from the recruiter the next day wanting to set up a call. After a 30 minute call with the recruiter she set up a call with the hiring manager. Then I was asked to come in for a face to face with the team, 4 members for 30 minutes each. Everything moved quickly and the recruiter was informative of the process and next steps. The office and staff were very professional, setting a great example of what may come.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX) in October 2012.

Interview

Absolutely the best interview process I have been through for a software engineering position. I interviewed as an undergraduate student looking for a full-time position, and I really enjoyed their recruiting process. I flew out for an on-site, where I had several interviews, and all but one were technical in nature. I had lunch with some engineers, and dinner with some managers and a recruiter. Conversation was casual and non-technical in nature, which I appreciated. The employees are all very well-rounded, which is rare in the software industry. After dinner, all the people I had dinners with, managers included, followed up with personal emails. Later in the week, the CTO called me up and made himself available for questions. Overall, I got the impression that they are a great company with a recruiting process that shows how much they value their employees.

Interview Questions

Reasons for Declining

I found another position at a different company that better suited my interests at the time.

Application

The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX) in February 2012.

Interview

After talking with HR, you go through a phone interview. The technical part of the phone interview consisted of mostly one question - implement an algorithm for a change machine to use with any monetary system. The phone interview to be much easier and laid back than in-person.

Interview Questions

Interview

1. Phone - convo with recruiter.
2. Phone - technical interview (remote coding was involved).
3. On-site - four 1-on-1, 45-minute technical interviews with staff/senior engineers and a 2-on-1 lunch interview with management.
4. Phone - negotiations with recruiter.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice in July 2013.

Interview

A very humane series of technical interviews. While they tested JavaScript knowledge, they also tested how I think, how I work through problems, and how I pair program. Each interview focused on a different aspect of software development, and it felt like I was being tested on things that I would actually be doing on a day to day. The only whiteboarding was during a discussion on how to architect a system, not reverse a linked list.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Bazaarvoice (Austin, TX) in August 2012.

Interview

built an automated application that display some stat metrics from a database with charts and user friendly, using php, ajax, html, css... presentation and explain the thought process that was behind the project.

Interview Questions

Interview

Recruiter's interview who directly asks you what your 'rate' is, followed by technical phone interview.
The recruitment process in bazaarvoice is so broken, they do not know how to assess technical talent. The company was looking for a person who can learn what they are doing in a R&D and work on it. Guess who they chose to interview candidates! An inexperienced graduate degree passout! Probably because the team is full of inexperienced graduates doing R&D. Moreover the lady was rude in the interview when asked about what qualities they are looking for that position. Not a good place to learn and develop for any experienced candidates.

Interview Questions