tkxel Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online for a non-technical Project Manager role. With over 12 years of experience, including 3 years in Project Management and holding a PMP, I was invited for an on-site interview. The first interview was with the team lead and went smoothly. Later that day, I had a second interview with the head of department, which was also straightforward, and they extended an offer on the spot. However, the offer was for a Project Lead position, not Project Manager, because they stated a PM role required at least 5 years of PM experience, which they felt I didn't meet despite the job ad mentioning 3-6 years of total experience. The offered compensation was similar to my current salary. After about two weeks of discussion, I decided to withdraw my application as they were unwilling to negotiate and it felt like a waste of time.

First, a recruiter will reach out for an initial chat to talk about your background, what you're looking for, and give you the lowdown on the company and the job. We'll also touch on salary and when you could start. Then, you might get an online test or a take-home task that involves writing and running test cases, finding and reporting bugs, API testing (Postman, REST, GraphQL), and using SQL to check databases. After that, there will be one or two technical interviews with QA leads or Senior Engineers covering manual testing (planning, strategies, bug life cycle), automation basics (Selenium, Cypress), API testing with Postman, SQL queries, and performance testing basics with JMeter. We'll also have a round to discuss your past projects, how you tackled tough bugs or improved testing, and some scenario questions, like how you'd test a login page. Finally, the Hiring Manager or Director will chat with you about fitting into the company culture, your career goals, and how you work with developers and product folks, plus any last technical or situational questions. If all goes well, we'll make you an offer and discuss the details like salary, benefits, and getting started.

The interview process has 3 steps: first an HR intro call, then a technical interview with a developer, and finally a meeting with the CTO. If you clear all these stages, there's a final call with HR which is an offer meeting. Oh, and some weird stuff about the notice period: it's 3 months if you leave within a year, but reduced to 2 months if you leave after a year. Also, they don't send an offer letter until you join; you have to go to their office to sign it and give it back, and you get your copy on your first day.

So the whole interview thing was pretty smooth. First, a Technical HR person hit me up. It was easy, just some general questions about design thinking, methods, and what I've done. Then, I had another technical interview with a Sr. UI/UX designer. We talked about how I design stuff, went deep into my projects, and they asked more things like about 'Design systems.' After that, there's an Assessment (not a take-home test), and then a UX consultant from senior management. This part was tough but super fun. You have to look at both UI and UX for a problem and make a Hi-fidelity screen super fast. The interviewer was really sharp and grilled me on my design process and why I made certain choices. Honestly, one of the best design chats I've had in an interview. If you pass that, the final interview is with another Senior Management person (Head of Design). It's basically a cultural interview. They might try to make you feel bad about your skills so you accept less pay, saying you'll learn a lot at Tkxel (which is true, but shouldn't mean less money). This is despite them working with US clients and getting paid in USD, while you don't get US benefits like 401k or salaries. If you don't agree, you probably won't get an offer or even a response, which is a bummer after investing your time.