Initial Communications:
Initial communication includes emails or phone calls, usually just to check your availability, expected salary and whether or not you think you'd fit into the company culture.
Follow-Ups:
The follow-up to this includes being asked more technical questions, not any of them unreasonable. Basically, Eric knows his stuff and will gradually pry into more technical details or aspects of development in a conversational manner. The company is small and consultant-based, too, so you'll get poked and pried a little bit about the business and correspondence side of development, too.
After that, you'll follow-up with Eric or go meet him out for lunch or some other outing, where you'll have a more personal conversation with some tech questions to see if you're really interested in working for the company. It is a smaller company, so don't expect the same pay as a 1000+ employee company, but expect great work conditions and a very happy place to work in. In other words, chances are, you'll get a fair salary.
After that, there's just one last team interview where Eric will take you out to eat with the whole team or just have you drop by the office to talk with us. You'll probably talk to our chief architect (Jeff) in private, then have a team interview to make sure you fit into the culture - laid back, enjoy web applications development with sincerity, know how to tell a joke or two, sociable enough to handle meetings and phone calls with clients, etc.
Hiring:
After that, you're either hired or not. Eric is not someone to just drop communication with anyone interested in the company, so you'll likely get a good reason as to why you weren't hired - the most common reasons being that someone just wasn't a tech matchup or didn't fit into the culture. I know he's reached out extensively to candidates we decided not to hire before to see if any options are available.
Perception:
The office space is just part of a floor in a building downtown. My initial perception was that it was a bit shabby, but very open. Having had poor experiences with other companies in the past, I was a little apprehensive because it was a radical change from the cubicle-based environments I was used to.
It only took about a week of development to realize I was at a very good company and that the culture was just as laid back and productive as Eric had promised.
