1. Initial screening (phone)
2. Detailed 1st round on project management (phone) - Had a detailed discussion with who appeared to be a senior manager. He asked about my daily tasks and chipped in with questions to verify my answers. He asked about examples of challenges met and challenges failed. His concern was that I did not know about the domain. However, he was ok with me having the willingness to learn. I was told that I cleared this round and they would like to meet me in their Gurgaon offices.
3. Case study and in person interview including role play (at site) - Sapient took care of my travel (everything) and barring a couple of minor issues with coordination (which shows they are just another company that also makes mistakes), it was very smooth.
The case study was interesting. However, my solution failed to impress the interviewer who came very late and appeared to be in a hurry to close the interview. I also suspect that the interviewer had decided within the first couple of minutes that I won't be selected (in which case, there was no point in continuing to waste time).
My issue with this kind of role play is I don't know what level of acting and selling skills they look for from a candidate whose profile is not related to acting or selling.
Another problem was that the interviewer kept going into and out of the role play and kept interrupting me.
Yet another issue with this particular interview was that I was told by the interviewer at the end that they were looking for a program manager (while in the previous rounds, I was told the position was that of a project manager). Regardless of what I was told, I realised that the real position is that of a business analyst who could do a bit of management (which is why domain was a concern). This was certainly not what I was interviewing for. Also, in this case, I should never have passed the first round. Looks like the second round interviewer did not communicate the requirements to the first round interviewer.
During this process, I also realised that Sapient has a particular way of working and is not open to discuss other ways. Sapient also did not appear interested in the candidate's beliefs, even for a senior position (I believe this matters a lot and can be a breaker if not treaded carefully on).
Overall, thank you, Sapient, for taking care of me during the interview process. However, looks like there is a big chasm between your thoughts and mine about how work can be done.