I was approached on LinkedIn by a recruiter to discuss an opening at the company for a position that sounded a lot like what my role and responsibilities consisted of in the position I held for my current employer at that time. There was a little back-and-forth at first with the recruiter, and eventually I had a phone interview with one of two people I would be reporting to. The phone interview was pretty laid back, and it seemed as if they knew exactly what they were looking for as they asked only a few highly specific questions to assess qualifications; the rest of the phone interview felt more like having a discussion with someone you meet a conference rather than someone who was looking to be your boss. Shortly afterwards I was asked to come in for an in-person interview with the person I previously spoke with on the phone and another person who I would also be reporting to and working with. The on-site interview was also more laid back than formal. One thing I took away from that particular experience was that the folks in charge had a good idea of what they were looking for in candidates, and they made it a point to spend ample time trying to get to know who they were interviewing. In fact they told me so; They wanted to make sure they were picking someone who would complement the rest of the team - a small group of smart people who were really good at what they did and took pride in their hard work, but also acknowledged the fact that everyone lives their own lives outside of their job. I can't stress how refreshing this was - they were a small 'start-up' company very similar to the small 'start-up' company I was working for at the time in both size and overall organizational structure, but I got the impression that the difference in employer-to-employee relationship must have been like night and day.