CLS Group Interview Questions
& Process

I applied through a recruiter and the whole thing took about a month. First, I chatted with the hiring manager, then I had 3 more interviews at their office all on the same day. The last step was an HR call where we just recapped everything and talked terms. Everyone was super nice and clear about what they were looking for.

I applied for this Strategy Lead role and was approached by a recruitment agency. I went on to do the first round with the hiring manager, which went really well and they said it was a fantastic call. However, there was no feedback or communication after the call, and they even ghosted the recruitment agency. It's disappointing because a lot of preparation goes into each round, and it feels like the organization doesn't value candidate time and effort. This was a leadership role, and feedback or a response is owed to candidates, even if it's a rejection. Disappointed with the process.

I had a phone interview with a Senior Technology manager where we mostly talked about my background and general approaches to application architecture. Their firm's architecture is really old and stuck with vendor limitations. The technical interview had some really vague questions. The interviewer didn't seem to know much. Instead of asking about protocol stacks and messaging, he drew two boxes, one labeled 'FIX' and the other 'Client,' with a line between them, and asked me to explain what happens between them. It was an easy question if asked right, I went through the whole TCP/IP stack and figured out he wanted to know what happens on the FIX server side when a message comes in, which is that the MessageType parses the message. The second question was about C++ pointers passed between a program and a function. Not that hard, but the code needed to be perfectly correct, down to the semicolon. Easy question, but the way it was asked is unrealistic unless you're coding in an IDE. Overall, the process was frustrating and a total turnoff. It seems like the technical interviewer either had another company he liked better or was really bad at assessing skills.

I was contacted by an agent and went through two interviews over two consecutive days. The interviewers were pleasant and friendly. After the interviews, there was a period of silence. When the agency asked for feedback, they claimed to be on holiday and unable to provide any. We had to follow up, and after three weeks, we received very basic feedback, which turned out to be that the job had been offered to someone else, and their 'holiday' excuse was disingenuous. Given the immediate availability required for two interviews back-to-back, I believe a prompt response is necessary, especially once a decision is made, rather than leaving candidates waiting and having to chase for information. Honesty would have been appreciated.