Rhino Interview Questions
& Process

They responded over a month after my application. There was no HR interview. The chief data officer reached out and wanted to chat, so I scheduled a call. The first two-thirds of the interview was good, discussing my past work and his experience. Then he started asking basic questions, like they were given to him. He gave an acronym, asked for its definition and importance in databases. I said I didn't know the acronym's full form and asked him for it, as interviews are two-way. He couldn't provide it either, quizzing me on something he didn't fully know. I ended the interview there. I later checked his background and saw he doesn't have a CS degree, though his degree is from an Ivy League school. I suspect he got the CDO role due to his school rather than data expertise.

So basically, a recruiter hit me up on LinkedIn. First, there was a 30-min call with the recruiter, mostly just chatting about my career and introductions. Then, a 1-hour call with the Hiring Manager, which was a mix of behavioral stuff and system design. After that, I had an onsite that lasted about 3 hours with a Product Manager, a Senior Frontend Engineer, and a Senior Backend Engineer. Finally, we got to the offer and negotiation part. The good stuff is that everyone I talked to was really nice and seemed genuinely into the company and work-life balance, like everyone was pretty chill. Most of the interviews were behavioral, with some technical bits thrown in. No LeetCode style problems, which was cool. They gave me a pretty solid full remote offer. But, the downside was that literally no one told me what the interview process was going to be or what to expect, so I was clueless until I was on the call. I didn't know if I should prep or what to prep for. I ended up taking another offer from a bigger company though.

I've gone through several interview rounds and followed up multiple times. Unfortunately, I received an automated rejection, which is usually sent when candidates don't even get a first interview. While I understand the need to find the best fit, not providing a proper response or feedback to someone you've spoken with is unacceptable. Even a brief note about finding a better candidate or feedback on technical skills or assessment performance would be appreciated. I believe the company has a great mission, but the hiring process doesn't align with valuing people and respecting their time. The excuse of hundreds of resumes doesn't hold up, as typically only a handful are interviewed. I've received feedback from major companies, so there's no excuse for this lack of professionalism.

I was contacted by a third-party recruiter from an agency about this role on LinkedIn in September 2020. I moved through the process pretty quickly and met with multiple team members. I had multiple calls with the recruiters along the way who said they were very excited about me and that an offer was coming by the end of the week, and they asked me to provide references. I sent my references and then asked for an update, was then told there would be another round of interviews despite having completed what they said was the final round, and then was completely ghosted despite following up multiple times. I never heard back about the extra interview that was added or to at the very least be formally rejected from the role. It was very disheartening and disappointing to be treated this way.