Voxy Interview Questions
& Process

This was the longest interview process I've ever been through. It had 7 stages, involving different areas and levels. The HR person in charge was a third party but did a great job. After talking to so many people, I was expecting a phone call and more consideration and transparency with the feedback. They told me they liked me but would consider me if another role opened up.

The interview process was really smooth and enjoyable. I got an email and then was invited to an interview where I had to prepare a lesson plan. My interviewer was very nice and made me feel at ease. I'd seen some negative reviews on Glassdoor, but thankfully my experience was good, so they must be making improvements. I got an offer from Voxy the same week.

A recruiter first connected me with Voxy. We had a phone screening to see if it was a good fit. Then, I went in for an onsite, which was pretty different. I spent the whole day working with the dev team. It started with a quick 1-on-1 with the CTO, who explained the day and answered my questions. I joined the team for their daily stand-up, and then we did pair-programming sessions for most of the day. I was the one driving, but they helped with the specifics since I wasn't familiar with their tech. We built a simple feature, and they got a sense of my work style and if I'd fit in. I also got to see if I liked pair-programming. Lunch was with the CEO, very casual. Afterwards, I met with the product manager. We chatted about me, what I wanted, and he told me about the product, how they work, the team, and their philosophy. I finished with a wrap-up meeting with the CTO. They called later that day with an offer.

So I've mostly been doing contract work solo as a software engineer, a real self-starter. I've been on teams before, both small and big, but the big ones were mostly reverse engineering code, which isn't quite the same as a real software engineering team. I'm really trying to get onto an actual engineering team to fill that gap in my work history. I make sure to mention this in every 1-on-1, just to be clear about what I'm after and not waste anyone's time. I've had lead roles in the past, so I don't see myself as inexperienced, but I'm always looking to grow, and being on a real engineering team is one way I can improve. The interview process kicked off with a simple 30-minute introductory phone call. Then, a call with the head of engineering. After that, there was a coding challenge where I had to build a small Python server with a front-end. We then reviewed that coding project remotely. The final step was an on-site interview. The on-site involved talking to two different people, lunch, and a 3-hour code pairing session with three different people, one hour each. The first person I was supposed to meet was working remotely, so I ended up talking to a product manager who seemed pretty checked out and just wanted to wrap things up. The next person was the head of engineering, who brought up some really interesting problems and technical challenges based on actual recent issues they'd faced. I really enjoyed that conversation. Lunch was at a great Middle-Eastern spot, food was fantastic. But, lunch ran a bit long, and by the time we got back to the office with the first engineer I was pairing with, we were already 30 minutes late for the code pairing. What was not cool is that they didn't adjust the time, so out of the 3 hours I was supposed to have for coding and submitting code, I only got 2.5 hours. The task was to switch a SOAP client to a REST client, with no strict deadline. The catch was there weren't any tests for the SOAP client, so we spent most of our time writing those. Each person I worked with had a different level of understanding of the codebase, from very little to moderate knowledge, which slowed things down. That's fine, but it's tough to get a grip on a codebase when you only have about 30 minutes to read the ticket, look through the files, and get comfortable writing tests in their style. Each engineer had varying knowledge of the platform. The company didn't communicate what I should prepare for at all. They use Django Rest Framework, so I studied common DRF problems and solutions. None of that was needed during the code pairing. For instance, I was asked to debug, and they use PyCharm. I'm not familiar with PyCharm debugging, so I asked. Turns out, they don't use it and the engineer got annoyed that I didn't know they used pdb, asking me how good of a coder I was. It's like they expect you to read minds. It would be helpful to let candidates know which tools they'll need. It doesn't have to be full onboarding, but knowing about daily tools like pdb is crucial. After the code pairing, I had a debrief with my recruiter. They asked a bunch of questions, and then I was sent off. A few days later, I got rejected. When I asked for feedback, my contact said they didn't have the notes with them and that the reason was I didn't have enough team experience. That's a weak excuse, especially since I made it clear what I was looking for. If that's the real reason, then nobody I spoke with was actually listening. What's worse? My contact then offered to connect me with other recruiters they knew. I followed up on that offer, but it seems they weren't serious because they never replied. What a way to leave a bad final impression. Bottom line: The recurring issue was a lack of preparation. From the initial chat to asking 'What should I prepare for this interview (tools, frameworks, algorithms, etc.)?' and getting no clear answer. Prepare yourselves and your candidates, or you'll end up losing out.