Overall, I found the MuleSoft interview process incredibly transparent. I was actively interviewing with multiple companies, and MuleSoft stood out in large part because of how the recruiter kept me abreast of where i was in the process. The interview process is also outlined in detail on MuleSoft’s careers page under “Interviewing”. My process from initial contact from a recruiter to offer received was approximately 7 weeks with multiple phone interviews and an all day on-site interview. I actually declined an offer from another company mid way through.
Even before initial contact, I had happened to come across a whitepaper, “The Top 6 Microservices Patterns" published by MuleSoft. I hadn’t heard of MuleSoft, so curiosity propelled me to dive a little into what the company did, their product. As it turned out, their platform was in use in a project that I was tangentially related to.
Initially, a recruiter from MuleSoft reached out to via LinkedIN messaging, and we scheduled a 45-minute call and discussed the what MuleSoft does, the Customer Success Engineer role and job description, my experience at previous companies, and how I might fit into the role.
This led to another phone call with the hiring manager, Director of Customer Success. We covered similar topics, but delved deeper into my experiences specific situational questions and deeply into accomplishments at my previous company. The dreaded salary question came up, but I was assured that MuleSoft’s compensation was highly competitive. We also discussed availability for travel. I probably could have talked to him forever, but we kept the discussion at about an hour.
Next, were a pair of 45-minute phone interviews with two of the hiring manager’s peers, the Director of Customer Success Architecture and a Customer Success Architect. The Director of Customer Success Architecture’s questions learned more behavioral and situational while the Customer Success Architect’s questions focused more on technical specifics of the accomplishments I outlined in my resume. We did get into “1s and 0s” on several of my highlighted accomplishments, recalling how the implementation was done. They were back-to-back phone calls, so I consciously gave myself a 15-minute buffer in between.
As I mentioned, I was actively interviewing with other companies at the time, and I received an offer. I shared this with the recruiter. The recruiter shared the value proposition of sticking the process through, and an estimate of how much longer the process would take. My expectations weren’t that the process would change or be short-circuited to accommodate me. I wanted to gauge where I was in the process. I at least knew that I would be proceeding to the onsite. Suffice it is to say that I declined the offer from the other company.
The onsite interview was kind of fun. I was asked to build an application using MuleSoft’s AnyPoint Studio, with some fairly loose requirements, and present it to 3 members of the local customer success team, including the hiring manager. A group of 6 members of the local customer success team attended (Architects, Managers, and a Director), plus 1 Director dialed in remotely, all of which provided for an interesting and dynamic conversation. My application design choice was scrutinized, and so I had to defend or concede design choices, where things could be improved, and what v2.0 would look like.
The onsite also included a quick 30 minute car ride, to-and-from Starbucks. This was a welcome break from the presentation, and gave me a chance to just get to know two of the people who I might get to work with in a low-pressure situation.
Next, I had to opportunity to speak with the VP of Customer Success. His queries were exclusively behavioural and situational, specifically around my interactions, face-to-face with customers. During the phone call, part of the office erupted in cheers. The VP explained to me that it was likely the always exuberant Account Development Representatives. I took note of that. That teamed seemed incredibly happy and highly motivated to be there. That sort of atmosphere is infectious, and one i wanted to be a part of.
After that, I circled back with the hiring manager. We had about an hour plus conversation. This was more of an opportunity for me to ask questions, and get to know the company, culture, and work environment. Unsurprisingly, over the course of the four phone interviews, no item on my resume was left unscrutinized. I feel that it is as important for a candidate to scrutinize an opportunity, as it is for a company to scrutinize a candidate.
