I applied online. I interviewed at Backbase (Amsterdam) in Jun 2017
Interview
I must confess I applied for an open position in Sales department, because I wanted to shift a bit my career and also because I was appealed by the possibility of travelling half of the time. During the first interview they proved very straight telling me that my knowledge of English language wasn't good enough to sell their product; at the same time they asked me if I could be interested in a more technical role. So I accepted to be evaluated for a Solution Architect position.
All the interviews were made on Skype, except for the last one.
I had a couple of interviews with the HR department, because of course the wanted to evaluate myself and above all they wanted to be sure that I had given the right importance to the relocation process (I'm not from Netherlands, so a relocation is a must). After these interviews I was given a technical assignment that I had to complete in a couple of days: it was about Apache Camel, APIs, Spring Security and so on. The assignment was evaluated in a positive way so I had a techical interview (among other questions, I was asked about my experience, the product itself and so on). Then there was a DNA chat, to let them understand if I had the right DNA to work at Backbase. The last step was a presentation at Backbase HQ about a project I had worked on in the last 2 years.
The overall experience was very positive: there I had the chance to speak again (this time in person) with the HR employee who had helped me during the whole process and again she helped me clarifying many other things about Backbase, about Netherlands, and so on.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It's not an easy interview, because as a Solution Architect of course they want to test your ability to shift from a topic to another one (writing code, testing, scalability, performance issues, security) with different levels of detail.
I applied online. I interviewed at Backbase (Amsterdam) in May 2017
Interview
First call from HR. Next call from technical guy. And last stage for me technical assignment - build web application for REST call with Apache Camel :) Failed due to not sufficient tests coverage :) Looks like fake (free job?) or kidding for me. They keep silent until i saw same position online and shoot email for update - not fair. Please Backbase read articles on how long feedback should come to job seeker.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Backbase in Oct 2014
Interview
I was contacted via LinkedIn by the recruiter. The email questioned if it was time to change job, it got my interest and replied. The interviews (3) were very nice and (since long time) challenging.
The first interview was by phone with the recruiter. I made clear what I expected and vice versa and this was respected during the process.
The next interview was with the lead architect and it was the first interview since years I was challenged. I enjoyed it and heard via the recruiter the lead architect had the same positive impression.
Last interview was with my future manager and we talked for more than an hour. It clicked.
The offer (in the end) was good, but not clear to me how the bonus scheme worked out. It was quickly resolved the next day and I accepted.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It was a difficult interview because you are not prepared to dive into a specific subject; it just came up during the interview (SSO, integration architecture & security). I was able to answer his questions, but the change of contexts got me sometimes by surprise.