Talkiatry Interview Questions
& Process

The recruiter was upfront about the stages, but it was a bit off-putting to be asked to do a SQL coding challenge before speaking with the hiring manager, which they only told me about after the first contact. When I finally spoke to the hiring manager, it was clear he was looking for someone with a very specific and hard-to-find skillset. Unsurprisingly, I got rejected pretty quickly, with them saying they found more qualified candidates.

The interview process started out great, I spoke with a recruiter and the hiring manager. Both interactions were positive, and I advanced. I was open about my current and past professional experiences and figured if there were any issues, they would just stop my candidacy. Before the next round, the recruiter outlined the rest of the process, which included meeting with other team members, a C-suite executive, and a final chat with the hiring manager to review a case study. After chatting with another team member and that conversation going really well, the recruiter told me the hiring manager wanted to do a deep-dive before my next team member meeting. This struck me as strange since they had initially said my next meeting with the hiring manager would only happen if I reached the final case study stage. I immediately knew my lack of extensive people management experience would be held against me even though other aspects of my background were a good fit. Everyone I met was nice. But the final stages of my interview experience were not good. I wish the hiring manager had just rejected me after I told the recruiter I didn't have as much people management experience as they wanted. Instead, they let me go through the interview process without any real intention of seriously considering me for the role. I would have preferred if the hiring manager had rejected my application after I informed the recruiter that I didn't have as much people management experience as they would have liked. Instead, they gave me the "thumbs up" to go through the interview loop while having no intention of genuinely considering me as a candidate for the position.

After applying via LinkedIn, Talkiatry reached out. First, a recruiter called me for an initial phone interview, but then I didn't hear back for two weeks. They sent an email apologizing for losing my application in the ATS. After agreeing to continue, they sent a timed 40-minute technical assessment. It covered AWS commands, AWS components, Docker commands, and some k8s command line. Each question had a short answer time of 0.5-1 minute. After 'failing' the assessment (which felt like it only tested documentation recall), they canceled the next interview. It's ironic that a company focused on mental health seems to struggle with its interviewing process.

The interview process felt exploitative and like a scam to get free consulting work. The first three interviews with the recruiter, CMO, and a product manager were standard, but I didn't get to ask many questions. The final round was a 'case study' where they asked for two social media strategies (Instagram and TikTok) with questions more suitable for someone already in the role. This took days to complete, and it felt like they wanted free labor. I then had to present this virtually to a group of employees and the CEO. The session was hostile, with rude interruptions and condescending questions. The presentation felt like a public roasting, not a fair evaluation. I left feeling humiliated and exploited, but glad I wouldn't work with them. I asked the recruiter if my work would be used, and they gave a dismissive 'of course, thanks' response. Their culture of exploitation seems common based on comments on their Instagram.