Black Spectacles Interview Questions
& Process

Pretty standard interview questions about past experiences and personal abilities. They mostly asked about strengths but also wanted to know weaknesses. It was friendly and professional. I wish they'd spent more time on past experiences.

The interview started with a recruiter call, which was an easy screening. Then, I had a call with the hiring manager. We discussed my background, and he asked a lot of intrusive questions about my previous employers, which felt odd. He wanted to move forward quickly, so we scheduled an onsite interview. During the onsite, I spoke with a lead engineer. We reviewed some old JavaScript code. I made a minor mistake but caught it and discussed it. We then moved on to system design, where I felt I performed very well, designing and explaining a solution. They asked more questions, but they seemed out of context, and they were running out of things to ask. The hiring manager tried to act technical but asked irrelevant questions. After a break, the hiring manager asked the same questions from the first interview, and then the CEO asked similar questions. It felt a bit pathetic and intrusive. I discussed my projects, successes, and failures, but their reactions were indifferent. They focused a lot on my relationships with past bosses. The CEO was in a rush and avoided my questions, and the hiring manager's role description was unclear. I eventually got rejected for a small coding error, but I have another offer now. I suspect they have issues and their leadership avoids real work.

The interview process seemed to align with some negative reviews, showing a disconnect between words and actions. I invested over 3 hours in multiple interviews, only to be ghosted after the CEO expressed interest in a follow-up. Since feedback only related to the first interview, I can only guess why the process ended. I wanted to talk to more people to gauge the company culture, but perhaps they prefer blind trust. Given the negative reviews, I wanted to be sure I wasn't making a mistake leaving my current stable job with the same salary for a role with less structure. They need stability and someone committed long-term for this role. While I enjoyed talking to the people I met, I doubt they can attract or work with serious professionals who have high expectations and question things to drive business growth. I'm glad I had the experience and hope I helped them define their ideal candidate. I just wish they had the courtesy to follow through or respond to my follow-up emails.

The interview process involved a phone screen, followed by a take-home coding assignment. The assignment was to figure out an algorithm for changing lanes, which was fairly straightforward with help from ChatGPT. Then, there was a two-hour Zoom meeting with different team members, which included strange questions about high school, which I didn't like. Finally, there was a grueling two-hour offline 'personality exam' that didn't make much sense. Overall, the process had several red flags, but I accepted the offer due to my recent layoff.