Slide Inc Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – Recruiter was very excited about talking with me. The people I interviewed with, not so much. Perhaps it was just the department I interviewed for, but they all shared this "I know all about everything" attitude. One of the interview questions I'd get asked repeatedly was suggestions on how to improve their product, to which I would provide some...and their responses were very negative and defensive. "oh, you may think that way, but most people don't. They wouldn't like that." Not welcoming at all.

But, the culture is very laid back. My friend took me around the building, and it's like a typical start-up environment.

Interview Details – I was contacted by Slide's internal recruiter about the opening of a junior front-end web developer position. From the job description, it says "candidates should have experience with at least one of the following technologies - javascript, html, css, javascript frameworks; experience with python or other object-oriented languages, expertise in actionscript". So thinking that I'm very familiar with html/css and have no problem implementing jquery elements such as slideshows, fancy menus, galleries etc, I thought I'd be qualified for the job - I was wrong.

When they called me up for the phone interview, 80% of the questions was about programming (not about building websites), but things like "if I have a folder with 50 html files, which might or might not contain phone numbers, how will you write a program to find those with phone numbers?" and "what Java classes would you use for modeling a casino?" While I had taken classes in programming in college, that was long ago and I've never used them when doing front-end web development. Interviewer was very nice, but did not expect them to ask questions like this for a junior front-end web developer position.

Interview Details – Initial phone screen, organizationally setup through HR. Had 4 - 5 interviews structured around the group. Company in search of a business model, but generally very intelligent and upbeat. Open office structure, two floors of SOMA building, rest of the building empty. Went though layoffs in early part of 2009.

Interview Details – Initial time from first call to interview was around a month. Had three phone interviews, then went to SF for the in person interview, company paid for only the hotel cost and it ended up costing me a couple hundred dollars in parking, gas and food. I was not told much about the interview process before I went, only that it would take up to 6 hours. It ended up that they wanted someone completely different experience than I had. Complete waste of time and money

Interview Details – This was more like a brain dump and "homework" than an interview. Their recruiter passed me (and other candidates) a series of questions telling me to be prepared for an interview on Monday. This meant, I had to do the "homework" over the weekend. They gave me a list of products and questions, telling me to know these products well (including competitors). I spent hours preparing over the weekend and then, on Monday, they said, "Oh, we've changed the questions...You need to answer this question now" -- and no phone interview yet.

So, I spent another hour answering their question, "If you had all the resources you needed, what kind of product would you create?" It was an extremely thorough answer and it was clear I understood the nuances of their product requirements.

They came back and said, "Not detailed enough. We want to know exactly what your product would be like...." In other words, they wanted me to divulge my ideas -- for free! No guarantees on an interview or hire. And they get all these nice ideas from very smart people in writing. What a waste of time for me. They could have learned so much about me by just talking with me. But clearly those were not their goals...(read on).

To strengthen my experience, my friend, who interviewed in person with Slide said that the guy just kept jotting down notes on what she said, her ideas. What kind of interview is that? We both find this company highly suspicious.

Clearly, this company thinks a bit TOO highly of itself. What are they doing with our ideas...???

Reason for Declining – I'm sorry but I'm not that desperate -- and I value people's time and ideas. I think "Integrity" is the word!

Interview Details – Very good culture. Free lunches every day. Open space cubicles.

Interview Details – Their recruiter contacted me via email. After answering some questions over email, the recruiter got back to me saying she wanted to schedule a phone screen interview. Had a phone screen interview with someone who is considered a peer. He was a project manager which i thought was odd but as long as you can come up with an idea to to make their game better and explain it, you should get through. I thought I would be chatting with the hiring manager but that wasn't the case.

If you pass that, after a couple of days, I got contacted by the recruiter again to set up a 4 hour block for onsite interviews. I met with 5 total. Two of the interviews were brainstorming sessions. One asked to design a weight loss app. Another asked to come up with four trending topics and give two examples of products for each topic that are the best examples and why. Then after that, she asked to mash up two of them and come up with a product idea.

Nothing to really prep for. You either know the space or you don't.

Interview Details – 5 1:1 interviews for 30 minutes each

Interview Details – Well, they asked me to produce some write up for their product, for free and over the weekend. I did. All I asked was some review, even if there is no interview. Because I spent several hours working on that, it would be only reasonable to get some outcome out of it. Unfortunately, nobody ever contacted me ever since.
One more point, their offer is pretty low compared to other companies.
This is a company to avoid.