I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Salesforce (Sydney) in May 2017
Interview
Four rounds.
1) Recruiter phone screening
2) Formal interview with direct manager
3) Coffee chat with director
4) Presentation to panel on a specific topic
The process was a bit jagged with scheduling, but the actual interview ran smoothly.
The recruiter was a gem throughout the process.
The interviews were fairly blunt. They didn't waste time from start to finish. Both face to face interviews (2 &3) were very open and honest, and the interviewers were quite transparent. Gave a good impression of what to expect for day to day if there was an offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you approach <high level technical problem>?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Salesforce (San Francisco, CA) in Mar 2015
Interview
SalesForce recruiters contact me every other month and this time I agreed to a conversation. I passed the phone screen and subsequent five 1:1 interviews with ease. Although the sales executive blew off the phone interview and did not even apologize when I met him later (strike one).
I was invited in to panel presentation and the topic was my choice. Upon arrival two of the attendees were speaking poorly about a third employee who left the room (strike two). When I introduced myself they kind of said hello but were not too friendly (strike three). At this point I realized I did not want to work with a bunch of self inflated egos. It's interesting how some companies forget the interview process works both ways and bad behavior is a red flag to smart candidates.
The presentation went ok although I had lost interest from the start. The audience had a hard time understanding basic principals. At first I thought they were role playing but later it seemed like they were not that smart. The presentation lasted an astonishing 75 minutes and at one point I went out of my way to see how long I could entertain the audience. They struggled with separating my content with presentation style so choose your topic wisely. Twice I was asked why I did not present my current companies content which I declined to do as its a conflict of interest. Maybe they were looking for competitive information.
Eventually they go around the room and critique your presentation and you get to go first. The most important thing I learned was that I did not want to work at SF. In the end it was a total waste of time and I wished I would have ignored the recruiter request.
Their top competitor made me a great offer in a structured interview process which took 3 weeks. I'm glad to go head to head against SF as they were not very professional and I'm sure I can beat them.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I laughed at this question... whiteboard the crm marketing ecosystem and how each component interacts with the others. This question went well beyond what was required for this position. While I answered the question one attendee drilled me on why I felt one component (the hottest in digital marketing) was needed. He did not realize but I stressed it intentionally because SF does not have it!