I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Zap Solutions (Pittsburgh, PA) in Jan 2013
Interview
I applied via Craigslist. I was contacted by a senior department employee about their interest in me via email. We set up a phone interview almost immediately and they were very accommodating in regards to time and date. I enjoyed two phone conversations with the employee, where he asked me about my experience, my favorite project(s), how I go about debugging and writing code, etc.
After the two phone interviews, I was invited to have a face-to-face interview at their HQ. I got to see the office, which they gave me a quick tour of and explained how the day to day routine works. Other employees said hello and were very friendly.
I met with the owner and the said employee for about 45 minutes in one of their conference rooms. We discussed my past experience, my preferred technologies and techniques and even a discussion about one SQL engine over another and the pros and cons of each.
They brought up my personal website on an iPad and pointed out a JavaScript issue they noticed and asked me about it and what some of my options would be to fix it. They were very friendly and down to earth throughout the entire process. After the interview, they walked me out and within a week, I had an offer for them.
The company is open-minded about who they offer employment to. They do not necessarily stick to a specific set of skills and experiences to be a deal breaker. My experience is in PHP and I had actually applied for that position, but they offered me a job in .NET department because of my ability to learn quickly and general programming experience. I was also offered the job with the understanding that if the .NET position wasn't comfortable, I could move over to the PHP department.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How to fix the JavaScript issue on my personal website.