Nokomis Interview Questions
& Process

I was living out of state and got a call from the recruiter. The whole thing took about 3 weeks and involved 3 phone calls and then 1 in-person visit, which they paid for, including the hotel. The in-person interview was pretty long, like 5-6 hours, and they really grilled me. I don't mind tough technical interviews though, and the staff interviewers were encouraging and knew their stuff. But the management part felt like they were trying to intimidate me, doubt my experience, and get free info, especially the CEO. They have a super strict 8-5 schedule, and you have to take time off for appointments, no paid sick days. You also have to work for free on government funding proposals after hours at least once a week. They're looking to see if you'll let them take advantage of you and work for really low pay. The pay is terrible, and they'll blame it on the company being small, but their 401k is supposedly great, though you might not see that money because they only match your investment once a year in a lump sum, knowing most people leave before then. They also pay their favored managers way more than the key engineers. Normally companies take a cut of engineer pay for contracts, but here they take a huge chunk for themselves. Even if you win a contract and qualify for a bonus, getting it is like pulling teeth. Some red flags during the interview were not being able to eat lunch because they were grilling me the whole time, demanding super detailed technical answers to get free information, and the CEO saying weird things about the company being debt-free and always paying on time, which is odd since they're so cheap about paying you for your actual work. You can work 60 hours and get paid for 36 if you took a half-day off during 8-5, even if you made up the time. It's a dangerous, toxic place. I'd tell 95% of people to avoid it. But if you only care about working and learning, don't mind disrespect, and are willing to do extra work for half the industry rate, it might work for you.

It was all on-site. We had one whiteboard system design question, and then 2 random leetcode-style questions. After that, there was an interview with the lead engineers and the CEO. The questions were very math-heavy.

The interview process was quite simple and uncomplicated. They communicated clearly and promptly. I had an initial phone call with the recruiter, followed by an in-person interview with several interviewers. The main difficulty I encountered was regarding compensation and benefits. The offered salary for this position was 62.5k, which is quite low, justified by them being a small company. Their 401k plan offered a 25% match but had a very poor vesting schedule. They provide 7 holidays, which is acceptable, but only 2 weeks total for vacation and sick days combined is insufficient. There's no guaranteed bonus, nor one tied to personal goals. Bonuses are only awarded in specific SBIR proposal scenarios: 5k if you're the principal investigator on a winning SBIR proposal, or 10k if the company wins over 10 SBIRs in a year and you were involved. Additionally, it's expected that employees write these proposals after work for two hours on multiple Mondays after the government lists the SBIR requirements. While I'm fine with occasional overtime during crunch times, this seems like asking for free extra work. Their workdays also appear to be strictly 8 am to 5 pm.

The interviewer was super nice and we had a good chat, which made the interview feel less scary. I've heard awesome stuff about this company and that the work is really interesting, so I'm really hoping I can get a job here!