Headout Interview Questions
& Process

The recruitment process was quite disorganized from the start. The recruiter initially missed our first call and had to reschedule for early the next morning. On the rescheduled call, she was 15 minutes late and cut it short, suggesting we move it to the next week because she didn't have enough time for all her questions. When we finally had the full call, I was told I'd proceed. It was clear the recruiter lacked experience, which should have been a sign to leave the process, but I continued hoping for a better impression of the company. The take-home assignment was a significant time sink. It was much longer than usual for similar roles and required extensive data analysis, a detailed presentation, and research citations, with an 8-day deadline. This was incredibly difficult for someone with a full-time job, requiring late nights all week. Honestly, it felt like a waste of time, especially since the feedback provided on my submission wasn't even relevant to what I presented.

HR gave me a ring for a quick intro call. Then, I had my first chat with the CTO to see if I'd be a good fit and if we'd vibe, which went pretty well and I got a sense of the company culture. The conversation was really engaging. Next up was a Low Level Design round where I was asked to design a CDN. That seemed to go alright. The High Level Design round, however, was rough. I had to design a translation service. The question itself wasn't too hard, but the interviewer had a very specific way they wanted it done. They kept cutting me off and changing the requirements on the fly. Definitely not a good experience.

First, a recruiter will call you to go over the role and learn more about your background. Then, you’ll have a quick 20-minute chat with a peer Account Executive to discuss the role and expectations. After that, you'll complete a take-home assessment designed for the role. Next, you'll talk with the General Manager about sales and data analysis skills and your day-to-day responsibilities. Finally, you'll meet with a Co-Founder to discuss your strategy for bringing in new business and scaling partnerships, covering topics like strategy, funnel, and conversions. The last step is a reference check, where you’ll provide contact info for references.

As seen in other reviews, the interview process at Headout isn't great. A few reasons for this is the lack of experienced employees, both in terms of years and exploration of new tech and architecture, and their ignorance to better solutions. That said, I noticed a common pattern of solution-driven interviews. This means they wanted to hear the solution they already knew. They weren't open to alternative or better solutions. When they heard a better solution than what they knew, they would randomly change the problem statement, which wasn't even a proper extension of the original problem. Based on multiple other reviews, I suspect they couldn't even grasp the solutions. They weren't open to recommendations or discussions. They neither admitted fault in the solutions they suggested nor were they open to discussing the pros and cons of each approach. Another critical reason is the wide experience gap among employees in different positions. This means a senior employee is at least 2-3 years senior to their immediate junior, and I feel this leads to a narrow solution capacity for most employees who have been working there for over 2 years, and they can't grasp solutions discussed outside their Headout 'syllabus'. P.S. It might still be a good organization for freshers or people switching from early-stage startups or service companies, but not for 'experienced' developers who have worked on challenging problems before.