Unruly Interview Questions
& Process

First there was this phone call, then an onsite interview. The phone call was 60 mins long, but the interviewer mostly talked for about 50 mins, explaining what's good and bad for the company. If I didn't like it, I could just skip the rest. For the first 40 mins of that call, I barely got to speak, like only 3 sentences, and was cut off when I tried to give details or ask things. Then I answered questions for maybe 7-8 mins, and the interviewer was talking again for the rest of the time. At this point, I figured it wasn't for me and I probably wouldn't accept an offer, but I kept an open mind and went for the face-to-face interview, thinking maybe I was wrong. It became clear in the first round though - the tech stack seemed shallow, most development is done with off-the-shelf cloud products. The tech doesn't seem to need much knowledge of performance, scaling, threading, or systems beyond what the cloud providers specify. No questions on data structures or programming language features. The coding assignment involved doing a task in a very specific way the interviewer wanted, instead of the best way. Questions, suggestions, or discussions about options were totally not allowed. Instead of testing analytical or coding skills or personal skills, it felt like I needed to score points by coding in a certain specific way. It didn't help that the interviewer spent 25 minutes of the 60-minute actual task explaining how it had to be done in a specific 'correct' way, which honestly wasn't the best or even a good way to do the task. It wasn't testing clean coding practices, deep language knowledge, or analytical skills, just the ability to follow instructions and mechanically write code. Strong hint of micromanagement and a hierarchical setup. Then there was an onsite interview which included a presentation.

After applying online, I had a 30-minute phone interview, followed by a 2.5 to 3-hour in-house interview. The experience itself was great, the office was fantastic, and the people were lovely. I was told I'd hear back within a week because they had another candidate to interview. A week went by, so I emailed, but got no response. I emailed again a few days later. After a few weeks, I called them, but it went to voicemail. I left a message, but didn't get a call back. I put my own time and effort into preparing, including taking time off work. It's disappointing that they couldn't update me, offer feedback, or communicate in any way about the situation. I'm left not knowing what happened or how I could improve. I feel let down and deflated. It's a shame the process ended so rudely.

The interview process had multiple stages: first, a Product Exercise, followed by a Telephone Interview. Then, a 2-hour F2F Interview where they dug into a known product and then competencies. The last stage was an F2F interview with the VP Product or an exec team member. The talent coordinator did a great job keeping me updated, and the team was really enthusiastic and loved the company. The process unfortunately fell through at the last hurdle when I was told the role was filled by an internal hire and there wasn't any further budget for external hires.

The interview process was good, with a deep dive into your previous roles. Depending on who starts the interview, you'll meet with 1-2 people from the team. You'll meet your boss and possibly the VP. There's no support or other sellers to ask questions to. You can only see the culture from a distance, so you don't really know what to expect.