Vungle Interview Questions
& Process

This was the quickest and best interview process I've been through. Even without an offer, Vungle was upfront about why and gave helpful feedback, plus some cool socks! After applying online, I had a first phone screen Friday night. Then, a Skype call with the London-based hiring manager the following Wednesday. That same day, I was invited to the Berlin office for three interviews with three different people the next afternoon. That Thursday night, I was asked to fly to London the next day for a beer with the hiring manager and the London team (which was great!). A week later, the hiring manager called with detailed feedback on their decision.

The recruiter was unavailable for the first two weeks and seemed new. He had to reschedule our initial call due to an 'emergency' meeting. During our eventual conversation, he couldn't provide much detail about the role and promised to connect me with the hiring manager. The hiring manager then asked me 7-8 technical questions. About a week after that, I was informed that I didn't get the job. When I inquired about the feedback, I was told that experience with Kafka and Spark was crucial, which I do have. This whole situation seemed disorganized and arrogant, reflecting broader company issues.

I was first reached out to by a recruiter from talent operations. I checked out their website and watched their culture video, which made me really interested. That day I actually stopped by the office and met some people. Talking with them made me feel like I knew my people. The next week I had an on-site interview with about 4 engineers and the CEO. This confirmed my feelings about the opportunity, and since I had a similar role before, I was a good fit. During the interview, I showed I wanted the job and gave examples of 'hustle.' You really need to be a hustler to make it here. I came very prepared with business cases and code samples, and talked through those with pretty much everyone I met.

Vungle seems like a cool company with a good product and lots of opportunities for advancement, which initially caught my eye. However, they could step up their recruiting game. After going through four interviews and doing my part with prep and thank-you notes, I never got a definitive answer about the job. I reached out three times, trying not to be a pest, and the recruiter told me, "The hiring manager still interested in you for the role and has not moved on with other candidates to the offer stage but is still in a bit of a holding pattern." That was the last I heard from them. Maybe the hold was lifted and they decided to move forward, and I'll eventually get that standard "thanks for your interest, but we're going with someone else" email. It's surprisingly better to get a rejection than to be left hanging for weeks with no news.