Applied online. Contacted next day by internal recruiter to schedule 30-min phone screening w/hiring manager; asked to provide availability for several time slots. Phone screen same week; ended things very excited about next steps. Manager noted they were moving quickly. Emailed by same recruiter 1.5 weeks after phone interview notifying me I'd advanced to a panel interview + details (date, time) for the panel, 1.5 weeks away.
Panel interview: apparently the last interview in the process. Greeted by hiring manager, brought up to conference room with 10+ interviewers. Not NOT intimidating, but they're people too and just as nervous/human about the awkward that can be group Q&A. Interviewers were from various WFM teams and roles the position would expect to interact with regularly. Great team, they came prepared! Highly recommend bringing something to write roles, names, notes and actually USE IT; interviewers took notes of my answers throughout.
Questions: many practical, mostly related to the role's day-to-day needs, plus a few fun queries for good measure/character assessment no doubt. Recruiters weren't present, which somewhat surprised me though I guess it shouldn't have. Correspondence didn't include details re: who/what to expect, so in addition to the **extensive** company research (**highly recommended**) try to get an idea of who you might work w/in addition to the hiring manager. All in all, aside from the where-do-I-look-with-10+-people dynamic, the questions were thoughtful, thorough, and challenging in the best way. A great learning experience even if you don't land the dream j-o-b.
Career site updates to application progress were slow. Got an email rejection ~2 weeks after panel interview, and considering the Austin market these days it's great to hear back at all. 40 days from date of application to "pursuing other candidates" email from recruiter ... several sources told me that's a relatively quick timeline for WFM.
Recruiters were courteous and professional throughout experience. Wish it was a bit clearer the extent to which they actually do want to hear from you and are available to provide WFM career and hiring process guidance. As someone who's in it for the company/values/product vs. just another job, would have been great to more openly discuss other opportunities or even meet recruiting. Though understandably so, taking the time to do that is no doubt a luxury they simply can't afford most candidates.