Builder Homesite Interview Questions
& Process

I first spoke with an HR rep, and then they set up a meeting with the hiring manager. It felt pretty casual, and we talked about where I'd worked before and what I'd done, and then dove into some of the technical stuff from my past jobs. I only met with the hiring manager.

The interview process involved meeting with the VP, then the CTO, and finally the CEO. I need to warn you about the CEO, he's a bit of a bully. He straight-up asked me why I've changed jobs so frequently, pointing out that my resume shows a lot of short-term contracts. He contrasted this with someone who's been at his company for a decade without job-hopping. When I attempted to explain, he cut me off. He even mentioned his own son struggling and advised him to just 'tough it out' as that's how corporations operate. For an experienced Data Scientist role, he only offered two weeks of vacation. A lot of his time was spent discussing business ideas, which he presented as if he was demonstrating his brilliance. When I pointed out that implementing all his ideas would be a lengthy process for data science, he became enraged. There was also a weird scheduling thing where people were interviewed in the morning, sent home, and then unexpectedly asked to return in the afternoon for more interviews. He comes across as someone completely lacking empathy, who loves to talk about himself, and dismisses employees and their concerns. Definitely dodged a bullet with this guy.

Got contacted by an external recruiter. Talked to a manager on the phone. Then flew out for onsite interviews, paid for it myself. The interviews were pretty straightforward, not too deep, no tough behavioral questions, and they didn't really dig into my past work. It was all very friendly and collegial. I had to meet the hiring manager offsite, which was a bit odd. Looking back, it feels like the company didn't put much effort into recruiting, which might say something about how things operate internally or how offer negotiations go. After the interviews, it seemed like an offer was coming – my references were contacted and they started negotiating my salary through the recruiter. Then, they just went quiet. The recruiter found out they'd extended an offer to another candidate who had failed the process, and they'd hired them. It was really unprofessional and embarrassing that my time, my colleagues' time, and the recruiter's time was wasted. The recruiter said they'd never seen anything like it and suspected the company decided against hiring someone just to avoid paying a recruiting fee at the last minute. Very cheap and amateurish.

I just relocated to Austin and this was the job I was interested in most. About 2 weeks before moving to Austin I had 2 different phone interviews - one with a recruiter and one with the manager. All went well and I landed an in person interview. The in person interview went great, I thought. It lasted about 3 and a half hours and I met with 4 or 5 people I would be working with. At the end, they had me develop a flyer so they could see my skill set. Because I just relocated I was applying for multiple positions with companies and received an offer with another company right after my interview... I followed up and was open with them, thanking them for the interview and informing them they were the job I was interested in most, but I was receiving other offers. They asked me not to except any offers because they were really interested in me and they would follow up with next steps. I had to personally reach out regarding the next steps. They scheduled another phone interview... and then a Skype interview with the manager, which I assumed would include an offer. They then called and asked me to go back into the office for one last interview at 8am the next morning, and this would be the final step. I arrived early, the person interviewing me was late, and the interview lasted less than 10 minutes before she said I could go. (it took about 45 minutes to get there, so that alone was annoying) HR told me again to please not accept any offers, and that they would contact me before noon that same day with their decision. I never got an email that afternoon, and never got a response to my email. I would not be so disappointed, if I was actually given a follow up email...even if it was telling me I was not given the position, since they implied I would get an offer and asked me to not accept other offers. Because of their process, one of my offers from another company was no longer valid because I took too long to accept it.