SoftWriters, Inc. Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was well structured and professional. It began with a brief recruiter call, about 30 minutes. Then, a 30-minute interview with the hiring manager, covering background and role fit. Next, I took the PI Behavioral Assessment, which took about 12 minutes, typical for product roles. The onsite interview followed, featuring a panel discussion with one group and a whiteboard exercise with another group, lasting 2 hours total. There were no unexpected questions, but the whiteboard exercise was tougher than anticipated despite practice. The mental demand of a panel interview followed immediately by a whiteboard challenge is significant. Overall, it was a very smooth and professional process with a great team, leading to a positive experience. I felt I had a fair chance, but I didn't nail the final step.

Had a quick chat with HR first to go over the job and some basic get-to-know-you questions. Then I went in person to meet with a bunch of people, including a director and other support folks. The last interview was with the support manager, which was online and after work hours.

I got contacted for an initial HR screen. I've never really appreciated the screens where the interviewer is distracted with making sure they take notes down and completely zoned out. I was asked very general questions about my experience, but at the end my interviewer was a bit dismissive as he mentioned he had been going through "a lot of these." Ultimately, from the outside looking in, he just seemed like he had a lot going on and was uninterested. The fact that Softwriters had been nominated for 'best workplace' multiple years tells me they are a great place to work but there needs to be some better training on how to conduct interviews. If your interviewer is zoned out / generally uninterested, your interviewee is not gonna be interested. Common sense if I'm being honest.

It was a very lengthy process, spanning 7 weeks in total. It started with two hour-long telephone interviews. After that, I was given a coding example to solve, which took me several weekdays to complete. This was followed by two in-person interviews, each lasting 3 hours, primarily conducted by developers. Unfortunately, the entire process concluded without an offer, which was quite disappointing.