Focused Interview Questions
& Process

It started with a phone screening with the recruiter, who seemed uninterested. Then, a 30-minute Zoom call with the hiring manager, who had no questions for me, so I had to lead the conversation. After that, I received a problem exercise and was scheduled for a working session with the hiring manager's team, which included one PM and one engineer. I was told not to prepare anything and that I wasn't expected to design a system architecture. During the session, I presented several solutions, briefly described the architecture, and we collaboratively developed a plan. One of the PMs joined late and seemed in a bad mood. When I asked him if he had questions, he said he hadn't prepared. The company went silent for a week, and the recruiter contacted me after I had accepted another offer. She informed me I didn't get the job because my proposed system architecture was 'awkward,' which could have been communicated much more simply. It was a strange experience overall, and I'm glad I dodged that bullet.

Started with a recruiter call, then a 1:1 tech screen over zoom where I built a data structure using TDD with an engineer. The main event was a long virtual on-site day (10-5 central). It kicked off with a brief intro meeting with the interviewers. Then came a 2-hour pair-coding session on a live ticket. After a 30 min lunch break, there was a 30-min culture lunch to chat about the company and my background. I then joined a company standup to introduce myself. This was followed by another 2-hour pair-coding session. The final coding session, also 2 hours, involved cloning a simple command line game to my machine and adding features while explaining my thought process live. They emphasized that all their dev work is pair-coding with TDD. I found the constant need to vocalize my thinking while coding really draining as an introvert. While everyone was nice and helpful, I'm not sure the job would have been a good fit long-term because of the mandatory continuous pair-coding and being on Zoom all day. My feedback after rejection was brief, just that I 'failed to pick up on a few things'.

I got contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn and we set up a phone screen. I passed that, and she mentioned she'd loop in the hiring manager to see if they were interested in moving me forward. But then I never heard back from her. It's pretty unprofessional to just ghost candidates when they don't move forward after the phone screen, especially when the expectation is to inform them of the decision. The way a company handles hiring reflects its work environment, and because of this negative experience, I can't really recommend Focused Labs as a place to work.

In the first round, you'll learn more about what we do here at Focused Labs. We'll discuss your interests, motivations, and long-term goals. We'll also talk about your background and previous experiences that might make you a fit with our team. You'll also have a chance to ask any other questions you may have about our team and work.