SurfMerchants Interview Questions
& Process

It was a three interview round process. The first was a casual chat with John Hsu. The second interview was more traditional, it involved a panel interview with management and a skills test. The third interview was more about culture and social fit, it included a meeting with a peer and then a roundtable discussion with random employees. The process was really smooth and fast. My advice is to be yourself because they can see through the usual interview persona. They'll talk to you like a normal person and won't let you spin a failure into a positive. They want genuine people with real experiences. Technical skills can be learned, but cultural fit is crucial.

There were 2 interview portions. First was coming in and meeting John the managing partner. Second portion was coming in second time and having a round table interview and a technical test.

First, you'll chat with the managing partner/owner. If that goes well, they'll email you a technical task: create a test plan for a specific website. Then, there's an on-site interview with the owner who gives you a technical test. Expect a lot of programming questions that might make you think they do a lot of automation, but they actually don't. They really want to see if you can follow programming logic. After that, it's the QA meet and greet where you can ask questions about working at Surfmerchants. Make sure to ask questions, or you won't get hired. The next step, which might be part of the same interview or a separate one, is the group interview. You'll get a list of questions beforehand. You'll meet with developers, QA folks, tech support, and project managers who will ask you things like, 'If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only bring one book, one CD, and one movie, what would they be?'

This interview wasn't typical. They asked me some serious work-related questions and also personal ones like, "What's your favorite book?" The goal was to understand me as both a person and an employee.