The initial phone screen with the manager went very well. After being selected to proceed to the face to face interview, I was given a rather ambiguous assignment to create an email to a client, a slide deck / presentation on the project describing security issues, and a meeting agenda for the client. I'm very glad I had read some of the other reviews on Glassdoor; however, I was still not prepared for what actually occurred.
Honestly, it was the WORST interview experience I ever had in my career. I met with 2 managers, M1 and M2 - who called in. The meeting began with barely any introductions and they proceeded to tear apart the "homework" in a very insulting and berating manner. M2 was very hostile and M1 was nice. It felt like a game of "good manager / bad manager". I understand the 'stress interview' format, however, it was only 30 minutes into the "interview" where they asked if I had any questions that I was informed that this was a preliminary run to review the materials prior to meeting with the team, who would be role playing the customer. Only then did the process make sense. Had I been informed that my materials would be all client facing, I would have drafted them very differently. M2 was angry he didn't understand a basic security issue - which surprised me since that was the assignment I was given.
M2 dropped off at one point and we thought that the call had been dropped; however, he just...vanished. Nothing was said at any point that he had a hard stop or that he had to leave. It surprised M1, who attempted to cover the rudeness. I continued to speak with M1, who was quite pleasant.
I left the interview feeling as if I was bleeding from every orifice and my gut was telling me to run, run, run. If this was typical example of behavior of the company, then no way did I want to work for SAS, although they do have great PR about working there. I sent the Thank You's and such to all parties and that's the last I have heard from SAS.