Forterra Interview Questions
& Process

I first connected with a recruiter and had a phone screening with them. Then, I had an interview with a technical person and a project manager. The technical questions were surprisingly easy, not really reflecting the job's requirements, more like something basic programming knowledge could handle. After that, I had a relaxed chat with the manager covering general topics. About three weeks later, I was told they wanted me to come in for an on-site interview at their Clarksburg location. This involved informal discussions with different project specialists, some general questions, and a tour of their cool production facilities. They mentioned they'd be in touch. A month passed before I got a rejection letter. It was a good overall experience, though I felt it was less of a technical assessment and more about seeing if I'd be a good team fit.

My hiring experience at Forterra for a Software Engineering position has been awful and disrespectful. They string you on and lie to you. The biggest highlight was after the panel interview when the next business day I was told I was a finalist and they asked for a reference check. I found two former supervisors and others to provide references. On Wednesday, I was invited to a "Quick Connect" with the hiring manager who had "a couple of ideas for me" – this turned out to be a hidden additional interview about the core values of Forterra, and I wasn't ready to provide answers given the short notice. I didn't get the job, but I got strung on and asked people in my network to pull through for me for no reason. I asked for more info about what happened and ended up being ghosted. Don't waste your time applying to Forterra. Also, their interviewers are uncoordinated and ask duplicate questions. I spent 6 hours of panel interviewing to get to the final stage and then get tricked at the end. Don't treat candidates like this.

I had an initial interview, about 15 minutes, it was a phone screen/Zoom chat with HR. They asked why I was looking for a new job, for my elevator pitch, and about my experience with LiDAR sensors and data. After that, I had a second interview with the hiring manager over Zoom with video. This one was about an hour and had two parts: a coding exercise, like a LeetCode problem, done while screen sharing, and then a conceptual question about computer vision for classifying points in LiDAR data. I think there would have been a third interview with the team if I had done better.

It was about a 3/4 day single interview event. I spoke with HR, some Sr. Engineers, and a few Mid Level Engineers. The engineers asked technical questions, a lot of them based on past issues they had with systems they designed. It felt a bit like a 'gotcha' style where they expected me to solve a problem that a team spent months or years on within minutes. I got most of the questions at least partially right, but I never got a job offer or even a definitive answer. This was over 3 years ago, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get the job. Near the end, it sounded like an offer was coming, with a Sr. Engineer saying 'see you soon'. However, after that, HR went silent and never responded to my follow-ups. The interview was tough but fine. My only feedback is to let candidates know if they aren't hired, especially if you imply an offer is coming.