Sama Interview Questions
& Process

My interview was canceled once and rescheduled. I wasn't happy with how the recruitment process went. The HR person interviewing me told me at the end that I needed one year of experience, but they already had my resume and knew I only had six months. It's weird that an HR person wouldn't check that before moving forward and instead just wasted my time. It says a lot about the company.

So after you apply, the first thing that happens is a recruiter gives you a call to invite you for this initial written assessment. It's like an exam with tons of people taking it. Then there's training for two weeks, and you have to take exams to see if you make it to the next part. After about another week, they invite you for a face-to-face interview with a group of people: HR, PMs, TLs, and QAs from the project you'd be working on.

This was a pretty standard interview process. Started with general HR questions, then went into my work experience. We also talked about what I think makes a great workplace. It was a really good, back-and-forth conversation with lots of good questions and answers from both sides. We covered leadership principles too. We started with introductions, did some small talk, gathered some information, and then had a Q&A session. It wrapped up nicely.

The interview process could have been better, it was quite slow, but the recruiter kept me in the loop about the delays, which was appreciated. I was contacted by an internal recruiter and the role seemed like a great match. Initially, there were planned to be three interview rounds. The first interview went well, focusing on my background and experience with the hiring manager, including our professional histories and problem-solving methods. The next step involved a technical test and a follow-up demo with a senior team member. Scheduling the technical review was a bit slow, but it also seemed successful, with positive and quick feedback from the senior. The third stage was supposed to be a technical demo to assess presentation skills, but it never got scheduled. Unfortunately, due to timing issues, growing pains, and possibly a search for candidates with more experience, the process dragged on, and the initial interview had to be repeated. I cleared the first two stages, but a reorganization meant I had to redo the first interview with a different manager/director. Follow-ups were generally slow, though the recruiter did try to provide updates initially. Ultimately, I didn't get final feedback until I met the recruiter at a third-party event, where they shared that a recent management change meant the new director felt I lacked sufficient experience, so the last round wasn't scheduled. The entire process spanned 3-4 months and wasn't ideal, likely due to internal organizational shifts. Hopefully, the process will be smoother once things settle down.