Oncue Interview Questions
& Process

First, a screen call with the hiring manager for introductions. Second, a case study review with the hiring manager where I was given 4 sheets of raw data a day beforehand for discussion and Qs, with some behavioral questions mixed in. Third, met with Kate, the CEO, to discuss culture fit and behavioral questions. Fourth, met with others from the leadership team to get more detail on Oncue. Fifth, an offer call with the hiring manager.

My interview experience was pretty good with their new Director of Product until the very last question. It was weird at first, but then it really started to bug me. They asked a "gotcha" question, which has never happened to me before, but that's not the main issue. The issue is that the interviewer pointed out three good reasons why he shouldn't ask the question, and then he asked it anyway. I'm a really honest person, so I'm not making this up. How to even process this made me feel sick. I almost decided not to even consider the job offer the night before they made their decision. The question was: If you could eliminate any state, what state would you pick and why? He even said he dislikes these kinds of questions, that it could be political but he didn't want it to be, and that it's a bad time for such questions. Since these questions are basically designed so you can just Google the answer they want, I'll give the correct answer in the Q&A section. After getting off the call, I realized people might interpret "eliminate" as killing everyone in a state. I immediately dismissed that meaning, but seriously, days after the US Capitol event, who would ask that? The goal is to see if people make assumptions, but there has to be a better way than asking, "I know people are talking about killing each other, which group would you choose?" especially when they want you to clarify the meaning with them first. Maybe a scenario like "design a weather app, I'm your customer" like my last company used to do. If someone immediately jumps to humidity, they might not be the right fit.

A recruiter reached out about the role. After I applied, I got a coding assessment on Woven. I finished it over the weekend and heard back the next Monday. The week after, I had an interview scheduled with the VP of engineering. Unfortunately, I got sick that week, so we rescheduled it for the following week. After that, I had three more interviews the week after that: one with someone from product, one with the CEO, and a final one with three engineering team members.

The interview process involved 3 interviews: one with the hiring manager, another with a team member, and a final one with the CEO. These interviews were very conversational and felt more like getting-to-know-you chats than formal interviews, making sure I felt comfortable.