I applied for a handful of positions on Dell’s external job site and the next day received an email from a Dell recruiter requesting a 30 minute phone conversation with a hiring manager. (Note: The recruiter’s email demeanor was somewhat chilly but when I got the chance to speak with him later in the process I found his phone personality to be much warmer.) Two days later (Friday) I spoke with the hiring manager. She was informative and friendly and after learning more about my background, said they’d like to consider me for two different roles on the team. (Bonus!) The next step was to meet with other members of the team, and I was very impressed by the turnaround. On Monday, the recruiter followed up to check my availability and was able to organize everyone’s schedule for me to come in that Thursday. I had four interviews: two with team members who would be peers, one with the hiring manager and one with the hiring manager’s counterpart (for the other position). The 30-minute interviews were mainly structured around my background and experience (i.e. resume stuff). About half the time I spoke, and the other half, the interviewers answered my questions and shared information. At the end of our meeting which ran a little long, the hiring manager said she’d like me to speak with her boss. On Monday (again, in a very timely fashion) the recruiter contacted me to set up the interview. Initially they had told me it would be a phone interview but they learned the interviewer instead wanted to meet me in person. They found a 30-min block of time for us on Thursday afternoon. In parallel, I had been communicating with the hiring manager’s counterpart. That same Monday, I sent him work samples that he had requested, and he responded same-day thanking me and asking if I could speak with one of his remote team members that week. We set up a phone call with him for Thursday morning. So busy Thursday: phone interview in the morning and in-person interview in the afternoon. I could tell by the end of the phone interview that the interviewer had something else in mind for that particular role, but there was no disappointment on my end because I hadn’t applied for that position to begin with. I did, however, get a little worried when I interviewed with the executive later that day. She mentioned that between the two roles, she was focused on the one that I hadn’t applied for. Inwardly, I hoped that it didn’t imply that I was out of consideration for the role I really wanted. Overall my interview with the executive went well. Beforehand, I had connected with a mutual LinkedIn acquaintance who sent her a reference. The interview itself was pretty easy. She just asked me to walk her through my resume. We probably could have spoken longer but the conference room was booked and people were waiting to get in. That was it for the interview process; the ball was in their court. I had completed 7 seven interviews in a little over 2 weeks but then I heard nothing back for another 2 weeks. I even sent the recruiter an email, checking in, but he never responded. I just started to lose hope when I got an email: “I have good news for you! Please give me a call.” Over the phone the recruiter said they were prepared to make me an offer and we discussed anticipated salary range and benefits. He said he would speak with the hiring manager and would likely send me a formal offer by end of day. But Thursday came and went. I emailed the recruiter early Friday asking if he’d be able to send me the offer to review over the weekend and he responded that he would provide an update later in the day. I never got an update. I heard nothing over the weekend or on Monday. Finally Tuesday morning I received the offer. I was a little disappointed in the initial offer; it was on the low end of the salary range we discussed. However, the hiring manager was open to negotiations and I was able to negotiate a slightly higher salary plus a signing bonus. I got the final offer on Friday and took the weekend before indicating my formal acceptance. I started 3 weeks later.