BECU Interview Questions
& Process

I saw a remote Supervisor role but it was in states I didn't live in. I reached out to a Director and said I'd be interested if a similar remote role opened in my state. About six weeks later, the Director contacted me saying some positions would open up soon and to apply. I applied and got a call from a recruiter about four weeks after that. The first interview went well, and I was quickly moved to a panel interview. They said I'd hear back in two weeks. Two weeks later, I got a generic rejection email. When I asked the hiring manager for feedback, they said that wasn't the communication that went to the recruiter and the denial was sent by mistake. Soon after, the recruiter emailed, apologized, and said I was still being considered and would hear back by the end of that week. Another week went by with no word. When I followed up again, I was told the hiring manager hadn't made a decision yet but I should hear back soon. Four days later, after another follow-up, I got a second rejection. As someone who handles hiring, I found this process confusing, inconsistent, and unprofessional. If the first rejection had stood, I would have respected that, but the retraction, delays, and lack of accountability made the experience unnecessarily frustrating. Communication and follow-through are crucial in hiring, and this process lacked both. I really value communication and feel there's a flaw in this process that needs investigation.

So I had my first interview over the phone with their HR Recruiter, who was pretty nice and really pushed for me to move on to the next stage. The second interview was over Teams on screen with 2 hiring managers, and honestly, I felt like one of the managers was against me from the very start. They asked me the same question twice when the 3rd GM popped on briefly, and then they questioned my answer like I was lying. I've never had an interview experience like that. I waited over 3 weeks for that second interview, and then another week after the interview to find out I wasn't what they were looking for.

So BECU uses Karat for their initial technical interviews. Karat can be hit or miss, but one thing is for sure: they don't give you enough time to finish all the questions and problems. On the plus side, Karat offers a second interview, no questions asked. I was really looking forward to joining BECU. I'm a good engineer, but I'm not great at solving problems on the spot under tight deadlines. Everything else I'm awesome at. It's taken me years to reach Senior Software Engineer status at my current job, and I tackle a lot of complex issues. However, I've never encountered a situation in my career where I had to solve complicated, often math-heavy problems in just 30 minutes. The industry's obsession with LeetCode and HackerRank-style interviews is a real shame and disqualifies some truly amazing people.

So I had a phone interview first, it was pretty straightforward but they were clearly prepared. They hit me with some technical and behavioral questions. After that, there was an online interview with two people who were super nice and encouraging. They explained the whole process really well. It was a lot, but the people made it a good learning experience. They asked stuff I'd seen online for call center jobs, and they really emphasized understanding BECU's mission and explaining 'why BECU?', saying to align answers with their 'people over profit' philosophy. Still waiting to hear back, but they said they'd update us.