I was contacted by a Pariveda HR rep who found me through my LinkedIn page. My initial contact and phone screen was to get a feel for the type of work I've done in the past. The representative was friendly and helpful and I was drawn to the company due to the unique transparent culture. Apparently you know exactly what is expected of you and are up for promotions regularly. The next step was to have a technical phone interview. Rather than ask questions the interviewer said he rather have a technical discussion based on the stuff I've been working on. It was a good conversation in which I explained projects I worked on with mostly a Database Developer/Admin background. I explained that I had done some web developing as well but was not nearly as seasoned in it. The next step after that was to go into the local office for a 1:1 interview with a manager. The interview was behavioral. A lot of "Give me an example when x happened to you and how you handed it" type of questions. I got very good feedback from that interview. I was contacted a 4th time to come back into the local office for a Programming Aptitude test. It was very standardized (almost like the SAT's). The test consisted of 25 questions in which you were required to write small code routines in a made up language that is documented in the test. I felt as if the test was easy enough but felt weird that it was not going to be looked at by Pariveda but instead graded by a 3rd party. When the results came back I found that I had scored a 20/25 and that this was not high enough for potential candidates (requirement 23/25). I was frustrated by this because I thought I had done better, and I assumed that possibly I made a stupid mistake on some of the questions and didn't get partial credit. I had been clear and honest about my skill set and gotten positive feedback but now was being thrown away as a candidate because of a standardized test. I haven't taken a test in 10 years! So I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed with how Pariveda evaluated me after I had mostly a positive experience. I guess one can easily say that if I were truly a good candidate I would have done better on the test, but I'd have to disagree. Test taking and working on the job is two completely different things. Not to mention this whole process took about a months time in which I could have been better spending my time. I'd suggest to them that they give the "test" earlier on in the interview process rather than stringing us along.

My interview process took around a month and consisted of two phone interviews, two in person behavioral interviews, and then a full day interview. First I had a phone interview with a recruiter, this was mostly just so they could understand my background and why I was interested in Pariveda. After this I was asked to stop by their office downtown for an hour on a Friday to meet the recruiter face to face. This was mostly a social chat where he informed me more about their company and culture. Next I had a one hour technical conversation with an Associate in the company, mostly the conversation was related to my experience and what technologies I've used. After this conversation, my interviewer confirmed what I had on my resume was legit and said they would bring me to the next stage in the process. Next up I had a in person behavioral interview with a VP in the company, this was a fairly casual conversation where I was asked some generic work behavioral type questions. The last half of the interview was allocated to allow me to ask the VP questions about the company. I learned a lot about the company in this session and told my interviewer I was very interested in moving forward. The last part of my process was a full-day interview, I showed up to their office around 7:45AM and was there until around 3PM that day. My interview consisted of a few case studies, technical conversations, and a casual lunch with an employee in the same role I was applying for. The case studies are fairly difficult in nature, and there really isn't a way to study or prepare for them in advance. I believe they are more concerned with your problem solving abilities and how you handle yourself in stressful situations rather than actually coming up with the perfect or right answer. Just be sure that whatever solution you do come up with you're prepared to justify any decisions you made and field difficult questions. One thing I thought was unique about their process was that during my interview, they didn't hesitate to tell me things they thought I could be doing better. This caught me off guard at first but I quickly realized they were just trying to help coach me for these types of situations. If you can't take constructive criticism well Pariveda probably won't be a good fit for you. Overall, I would say their interview process (mostly just the full-day) is much more difficult than typical interviews in IT. They are looking for a specific type of individual and most programmers won't fit their mold. Coming from one of the largest software companies in the world I was very surprised to find out Pariveda didn't ask any specific technical questions, rather they are just concerned with general problem solving abilities, It was a good interview experience and I'm excited to see what my career with Pariveda has in store.