Please let this entry serve as a cautionary tale for those of you considering Slalom. Given that most people who choose to submit entries fall on the extreme ends of the spectrum (i.e., either love or hate the company under discussion - myself included), please take this with a grain of salt…and please make sure you go into your conversations with your eyes completely open. Similar to a lot of respondents, I was approached via LinkedIn. Based on my background (ex Big 4 consultant, 17+ years of internal/external consulting experience, significant Director-level positions within a Fortune 100 company, MBA from a top 5 business school), I was being considered for a Practice Area Lead role. I interviewed with Slalom several years back but did not accept the offer of employment due to timing and compensation (I would have left a significant amount of money on the table by accepting their offer)…but I did have a very good experience last time and held a deep respect for the people I interviewed with so I said what the heck (Note: Although I'm quite happy as an independent consultant, the role sounded pretty good and it never hurts to have a conversation right?). So I spend a couple weeks interviewing with the entire Leadership Team and the conversations are pretty good. The questions were pretty focused on my technical competency…which weren't hard at all…but nothing about my comparable leadership experiences. The following week I had subsequent conversations with the recruiter and one of the Practice Area Leads where they signaled their interest in bringing me into Slalom…but at a senior individual contributor level role. They're reasoning: while I had "potential", they wanted some time to evaluate me and make sure that I could demonstrate key Slalom behaviors. When I pressed them further, they said things like being able to manage multiple clients, how I structure deals, how I manage client relationships. I only wished that they had asked me these questions during the actual interviews, paid attention to what my 6+ client references said and looked at my resume so I could share my perspectives. Nonetheless, I know that I don't walk on water, so I said fine I'll spend time demonstrating these behaviors…but please put me in a role where I have the opportunity to demonstrate them from the outset (lest I spend a year in the role, only to be told that I haven't sufficiently exhibited them). When they couldn't meet this basic requirement, that is where the talks broke down. As they would later disclose, they haven't had very much experience hiring candidates directly into the Lead role and try to get candidates to accept a lesser role. In fact, in the 7+ year history of the practice, less than a handful of candidates were hired at that level (which begs the question, why even attempt to hire at the Lead role then?). So I walk away from this experience pretty disappointed that I spent three weeks of my life and expended significant emotional energy talking to Slalom. Lesson to be learned from all of this: make sure you know exactly what role you are interviewing for. It can make all the difference in your respective experiences and whether or not you to choose to pursue their opportunities.

I met with a variety of team members ranging in seniority over a 2 month period. Each interviewer asked similar questions related to my work experience. The process was rather clumsy and I got the impression they were more interested in cultural fit than testing for specific skills.