I applied through college or university. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at S&P Global in Nov 2011
Interview
CIQ came to campus for a career fair and that's where I met the employees and really liked what they had to say. I made sure I talked to them enough so they would remember me. I sent my resume and got notified for a campus interview. The day before, they hosted an information session and I attended that as well, just to speak to the person who would interview me in a more informal setting. When it was time for the interview, I first took a written skills test with some basic questions on database design, a small coding question (they didn't care which language), and some sql queries. Next, I had a 1:1 interview with one of the employees. We went through the test and discussed my answers. The thought process was more emphasized than having the right answers. They don't expect all candidates to be completely versed in db's. I was then asked why I wanted the position etc.
A few days later, I was told that I had made it to the next round - the super day interview. It was scheduled for 2 weeks later and I was flown to NYC. The S&P building is very impressive. The candidates all gathered in a room and had pizza with the employees - just an informal session to ask any questions. I liked that touch because it was welcoming. The atmosphere seems relaxed and facilitates a collaborative environment. Also, most of the employees are young which probably means there are some great ideas flowing through the office. Next, I had three 1:1 interviews with members of the DB team. I had to show how I would design a certain database on the whiteboard. Each time a new interviewer came in and the other left. a new component was added and I was asked to figure out how to implement it. It was fairly straight forward and I learned a lot of design concepts just during the interviews when the employees corrected my logic or showed me something when I was uncertain. All of them seemed to look for my interest in databases, and an interest in learning more. Each asked if I had questions, so come with questions.
About two and a half weeks later, I received an email with an offer letter attached!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why do you want this position? Why do you want to work for CIQ?
I applied through college or university. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at S&P Global in Feb 2011
Interview
Presented with a 30-page skills assessment. First exercise was on database design. Second exercise was an algorithm problem using your language of choice. Third exercise was writing out complicated SQL queries.