I was reached out to by a recruiter, and after a bit of back and forth regarding scheduling a call, we spoke on the phone. He ended up being very friendly, and easy to connect with. I realized this was more of a screening call, so I just briefly described my work experience and what I was looking for in my next role. Shortly after the call, the recruiter reached out to schedule a call with me and the director of the SmartAdvisor program. I appreciated this timely follow up. The following week, the director called me at the promised time, and we had a similar conversation - I gave some background on myself and had some questions prepared for him (what does the day to day look like, would I be reporting to a manager, how big is the team, etc.). I also made sure to have some responses prepared for common interview questions.
I then got an email from the recruiter saying they'd like to bring me into the office. Again, I really appreciated the timely follow up as I've been through interview processes where I never heard back after a phone call (as I'm sure we all have, especially in NYC!)
SmartAsset was really flexible and understanding when I told them the specific times I could come in.
My in person interview was long because I met with the recruiter, the director, the manager of the team, and 2 or 3 people on the Account Management team. I assumed the length of the interview was a good thing. I felt like manager of the team could be someone I could learn from and he mentioned he did weekly 1 on 1's with everyone on his team, and a hand's on manager was something I was really interested in. The team also seemed very personable and genuinely interested to be speaking with me. I was asked standard questions, and had plenty of time to ask all of my questions.
Of course when you meet with multiple people, one after the other, you end up doing a lot of talking and repeating your previous answers. The team was very understanding of this and we spent some times just speaking about every day things - so they could gauge if I would be a good culture fit.
I heard back several days later from the director with a job offer. I accepted, and am now happily working here.