Code for America Interview Questions
& Process

The entire process spanned about 6 weeks, with a week's delay due to a company conference. I applied online and then had a call with a hiring coordinator. After that, there was a short written analysis exercise. This was followed by an interview with the hiring manager, which felt a bit rushed, like they were just trying to get more candidates in. Then, I went through 4 more interviews with 5 people in total. The interviews covered really different topics: product security/management, IT/data classification, security compliance/influence, and web app security/incident response. Because the topics were so varied, it felt like the role wasn't clearly defined and could apply to multiple different positions. When I interview people, I usually ask what they're working on and their expectations for the role. In this case, the answers about expectations were all over the place, suggesting the role itself wasn't well-understood. The interviewers were nice and seemed to be working with standard questions they had to ask, even commenting on it. I think a more natural conversation would have been more effective for them. Some interesting points were that 4 out of 6 interviewers were trans/non-binary, which might be a challenge for some candidates. Also, one interviewer seemed disengaged, looking at her computer a lot, and the DevOps engineer is the only one in that role, which could cause collaboration issues.

I sent in my application online and got a response from the scheduling coordinator about 6 days later. I had a phone conversation with the recruiter, but unfortunately, I didn't move on to the next stage. They let me know through an automated email, which was a bit of a letdown given their mission and that I had spoken directly with the recruiter. I tried to get some feedback, but it's not something they do due to policies on equity and scalability. The next steps would have involved a call with the hiring manager, then calls with team members, and finally, reference checks.

So there's like 3 interviews in total. The first one is a short phone screen, maybe 15-30 mins where you introduce yourself and they ask 2 typical questions. Then a second interview with a qualitative researcher, 30-45 mins. The third interview is onsite and it's 3 hours long. It includes a cross-functional interview with two people from different departments. Then you have another interview with another qualitative researcher. After that, I think they check references and then offer you the job. It took like 2 months total. It's long, but they're pretty respectful of your time and everyone's friendly and makes you feel comfortable. Even the rejection email was nice.

So the interview process was pretty straightforward. I had a phone screen and then an interview with the Qualitative Research Manager. The next interview was a bit strange. I was prepped to do a 20-minute case study presentation about my experience leading research on a team, with 40 minutes for questions. But, the interviewer wasn't aware of this plan. In the end, they said they were seeking someone with more product experience, but also mentioned that Code For America should hire more 'people like me.' I'm not sure what they meant by that, but it left a negative impression. I do think the company needs to do a better job training their interviewers to be more organized and respectful.