Employ (MA) Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was great! The recruiter was super communicative and helpful, making me feel excited about the role. The process included 6 stages: First, a recruiter screen to talk about past software implementation experiences and interest in the role. Then, a hiring manager screen to discuss challenges overcome and contributions. Next, a product demo where you could ask questions and assess your interest. Following that was a homework presentation, a mock kick-off call with a customer. After that, an interview with the Director of Implementations to assess challenges, cross-functional abilities, and career fit. Finally, an informal peer interview to check for behavioral fit, integrity, empathy, kindness, and teamwork.

The interview process included a recruiter call, a technical challenge, a pair programming session, and a project interview. I withdrew my application after the pair programming stage. This seems like a great place to work, but be aware that it's very CS-driven, so if your background isn't traditional SWE, you might find it tough. My interviewers were quite condescending when I couldn't solve a very abstract problem, as I'm mostly frontend and not a Leetcode expert. One interviewer asked what I do in my current SWE job, seemingly surprised I had one because I struggled with the problem. Another asked if I'd ever done technical interviews before, implying that failing a specific whiteboarding test meant I had no experience with technical interviews in general. While I acknowledge the value of CS-driven interviews and my own learning needs, I wish the industry was more inclusive and understanding of diverse technical backgrounds, especially if they aim to improve diversity. I'm not suggesting you should hire me, but please don't treat me as if I'm clueless or don't belong in this industry, because that's not accurate. My experience left me feeling quite dejected and shamed.

The Sr. PM position at Lever has a 5-stage interview process where candidates are assessed on various skills. The interviewers were really nice, helpful, and smart. They saw interviews as a two-way street and were open and honest in answering questions. The process included: 1. A chat with the Recruiter. 2. An interview with a Product Leader. 3. A Product Sense/Thinking Exercise with Design Leaders and Senior PMs. 4. A virtual onsite with 5 interviews covering the CEO, Engineering Leader, CS team leader, and career trajectory discussion. 5. A Panel Presentation where you showcase a past project you managed as a PM, focusing on communication, product thinking, strategy, collaboration, and leadership. 6. An Offer.

The hiring journey kicked off with an initial phone screening, followed by a paired programming exercise with a senior engineer via Zoom. This one-hour session focused on a search query problem, conducted on CoderPad with allowance for documentation lookup. Subsequently, I was invited for a virtual onsite, comprising four one-hour interviews: another paired programming session (this time on file system navigation, slightly tougher than the first), a code review involving identifying subtle improvements in a given sample after discussing review principles, a deep dive into a past project covering teamwork and reflections, and a career history discussion. All onsite interviews were conducted over Zoom, with the flexibility to complete them in one day or spread them out. Following the onsite, there was a conversation with the hiring manager about the company and the open position. The communication from the hiring team was prompt, and the recruiter provided helpful preparation guidance, including an overview of the onsite interviews. It was a genuinely positive experience overall.