First Mode Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and heard back from a recruiter about two weeks later to set up a call. We scheduled it, but they never showed up. I tried calling and emailing them multiple times with no response. After waiting about 45 minutes, I gave up. The next day, the recruiter contacted me, blamed their calendar, and asked to reschedule. We had the call this time, and it was mostly about administrative details, then they asked about my availability for a technical screen. I gave them several times I was free, but they scheduled the tech screen at a time I had explicitly said I wasn't available. I had to rearrange my schedule to make it work. The screen itself was with two engineers who asked fairly basic questions about my resume and past experiences, nothing really technical. A few days later, I followed up with the recruiter, and again, nothing. I tried reaching out weekly for a few more weeks, but the recruiter continued to ignore me. I've moved on to better opportunities. The initial interaction with the unprofessional recruiter left a bad impression, and I should have seen it as a sign to disengage.

The recruiting team was really behind schedule and seemed disorganized and unprofessional. I got a request for my availability for a phone screen two weeks after applying, and then heard nothing. After more than two weeks, I got a message saying First Mode was weeks behind on scheduling interviews. I offered more availability and the recruiter sent me a poorly formatted, grammatically incorrect email with typos. I already had another offer, and only when I mentioned it did things start moving quickly. The interviews with the engineers themselves were great, though. It's a shame the recruiting department is so unprofessional for what seems like a good company.

I really enjoyed interviewing at First Mode. I met with their head of Design and the head of marketing. Both were super chill and asked a lot of insightful questions about my portfolio. They didn't seem to be sticking to a script. I appreciated that no one asked me to do design exercises or think on my feet. I got some really good feedback and left feeling pretty hopeful. Sadly, I didn't hear back for a while. When I checked in with the recruiter, they told me that their business needs had shifted unexpectedly and the job wasn't available anymore.

First, I had a 60-minute call with a recruiter where we discussed the position and my interest in it. After that, I had a technical interview with two developers. They asked me about programming terms and some behavioral questions related to my past work. Then, we worked on a coding challenge that involved navigating a 2D map.