I received a call from the HR after i submitted my CV directly to them. There was a discussion on the roles available, and although i felt that I had more senior experience, the recruiter and I agreed that there would be a learning curve due to agile etc... so it was ok to take on a basic PM role.
First had a telephonic interview, which I guess was only a screening process. The interviewer was asking very basic questions, but was more interested in my experiences. After the telephonic interview, I was called to their facility for an in-person interview. Had a very simple logical written test, which i must have done ok. Then, an in-person interview with a pair of PMs. The interviews were very informal, but again, these people had much lesser experience than I had. The questions were scenario-based, and the interviewers were more interested in the reasons behind my decisions.
I was told that this was through. After a couple of more weeks, I was called in again. 2 more interviews, with 2 pairs of project managers - same tone. The project managers were still talking naively, the questions mostly on how to keep the customers and team members happy. Now given a situation, how a PM would respond would depend a lot on a variety of circumstances, with the PM's prime responsibilities being cost, quality and time. However, most of their expectations seemed to be about keeping developers and customers happy again. With my experience, I was aware that the customer project manager is not the only person to be kept happy, the project has to gain acceptance with the business users and sponsors, even if it means bruising the customer manager a bit, and we had a few discussion on my point of view.
The HR then took eternity to get back to say that they felt that I was not customer-centric. Wow! I thought!! I told them that that was what i felt about the interviewers too, so there was a problem, and asked to be interviewed by a senior person. I gave them some instances of mistakes that the interviewers made. They said that was not required, and that their mind was made up. When i shared my overall experience about the interviewers not having an eye on profit for the organization or the customers, I was told that Thoughtworks does not execute any projects for profit!!!
I went into the interview process with such an high regard for the organization, but came out feeling so silly about my opinion.
My advice, do not join Thoughtworks for managerial positions. You wont learn much except account keeping. All they want is high performing developers. They do not want or need high performing project managers, just people managers who can mutely keep a team of high performers together!
Of course, i did check if their website said thoughtworks.org! :-)