The interview process and the outcome mirrored the experience of a previous commenter who had applied for a Principal Consultant position (and posted a review on March 29, 2015).
I applied online, and I got a positive response the very next day. The first conversation was with an internal TW recruiter out of the Chicago office. A very engaging discussion, and she was sure to capture my compensation requirements within the first few minutes.
Next step was a discussion with a Technical Director, which is a pretty high-level title at TW. The director had to cancel at the last minute, and instead, I spoke to a Principal out of the San Francisco office.
After successfully submitting my coding test and presentation, I was invited to come into the NYC office. There, I had a panel discussion about my presentation, a pairing interview, a short interview about my views on social justice (TW's Pillar 3), and then a logic test.
The next week, I had a video debrief from the Managing Principal of the NYC office.
A week later, I was invited to come into the NYC office to discuss an offer. There was a huge disconnect, and I ended up leaving the office very frustrated. As soon as I got home, I sent an email to the TW recruiter in which I said that I withdrew my name from the candidacy.
My main complaints were:
1) During the first ten minutes of my initial interview with the TW recruiter, we narrowed down my salary expectations. Then, during the last meeting, where they told me that they were going to give me an offer, the Managing Principal asked what my salary requirements were, and after telling him, he said that he was not authorized to offer that much, and he would have to get special permission from a person who was a level or two higher. In my opinion, when you tell someone to come in to talk about the offer, you actually have a number in hand !!!!
2) At various times during the interview process, the interviews did not take place at the scheduled time. They have something wrong going on their with their internal clocks. The second interview I had was delayed twice because the recruiter in Chicago messed up on the times. The final debrief was delayed for two hours, resulting in a very awkward situation where they gave me ten minutes notice that they needed to have a video chat with me ... and I was sitting in my office at my current job.
3) I originally was slated to speak with one of the technical directors. He cancelled at the last minute, and instead, I spoke to a Principal out of the San Francisco office. The interviewer was on a cell phone at a nosy location, and it was difficult to communicate with the interviewer. In my opinion, when someone is being interviewed, they should be on a land line and in a quiet location. Especially if you have a senior-level candidate that you are speaking to.
Basically, despite their proclaimed excellence at technology, the internal processes are not what you expect from a company that carries the ThoughtWorks name.