In one line, this is the longest and toughest interviews I had so far yet I lament that there was no result after all the time and effort spent.
Applied online, the recruiter called immediately and setup an interview. The interview went on for 1 hr, at times went pretty technical. I did not expect such knowledge from a recruiter. The interview went on very well. One week later, I had phone interview with hiring manager. The interview was planned for 50 minutes but went on for about 1 hr 50 mins, I felt very good. Then in next round 5, 30 minute skype interviews were scheduled 3 weeks later. I was told they are interviewing other people that they need time to sync me with others. 3 of the interviewing people are in one location and other two are in another location. I asked if the interviews could be consolidated as it is difficult to take time from work at 5 different times during same week. I was strictly told NO. So I took time to finally go through all interviews, some ran longer but all 5 went on very well. There was one with the IT architect that I felt he had some ego clash or pre-conceived notion. One of the reasons I felt so was because he asked for experience in aspects not in my resume. I pretty much had to repeat the same things over and over 5 times!
After interviews I contacted the recruiter and she says I am one of the top candidates but they are still interviewing lot of more people and they are in first round of phone interviews.
I kept on waiting....in mean while I got offers from other interviews I had and accepted an offer with another company...these guys are still going and going... I was told the next steps are to invite me onsite to Atlanta and have more inperson interviews, particularly with business users. I was already tired of interviews by then.
My personal opinion: As far as I know there is only one position open. this is a matrix organization, meaning you are one among 8 other already existing managers that are competing for a promotion in future. I looked up profiles of other people that have been there for a lot of time and they did not make much head way vertically in their careers except for a lot of lateral moves. There is no one directly reporting to you, however you are manager as that is how things work in a (weak) matrix organization. I had impression that a lot of policies and processes were very clearly defined, all boundaries between roles defined cut and dry. This shows how strong/efficient the organizational process could be.
The recruiter, Program manager and most others have been very professional and friendly. No where I had trace of unprofessionalism.
However the way the interview process went on, 3 hrs on phone and another 3-4 hrs in 5 different skype interviews at various times of the day, making me wait for 3 weeks between interviews and finally asking me wait few more days, interviewing more people even after saying that I am a top candidate made me think that they have too many choices and that they have almost no respect for the interviewing candidates time or opinion. If they like some one they should go forward and if they don't they should be clear. Maintaining a candidate in pool and assuming he/she would be available for them forever is a mistake. This shows indecisiveness or weakness within the recruitment process.
I wonder if they don't care about you even before interviewing, how would they care when you are actually hired. Infact the pay they were offering is also not that great. However they are willing to offer relocation and other benefits.