Ancestry Interview Questions

1st round typical recruiter call 2nd round 1 hr call with 3 members. Initially, the questions were behavioural and then moved to hackerrank - typical medium leetcode question on cache but is lengthy. I started coding and within 5 mins they asked me to run the program. I told them I was not done. I don't understand what they expected to happen?? Of course it was not going output the answer they would expect. Again this was within 5 mins. They then mentioned they were only checking to see if I could code and I had passed that test. Then they moved to ask javascript questions which I told them I am not able to answer as I don't use it day to day. I guess the role needed JS experience so they could have stopped the interview there. but continued to ask other questions and clearly started making faces showing they were uninterested. Waste of my time. Recruiters or management if you read this you need to give some training to your interviewers on how to be decent people.

Spoke to about six different people and it took about a month to complete the process with everyone. Company is very large so it seemed like a lot of groups compete over the same projects. Overall, I really liked everyone I interviewed with (especially the hiring manager) except the company culture person. I expected that interview to be very friendly and informative, instead, the person had a really negative presence and was unprepared and asked weird questions that made me uncomfortable. After the interview, it felt like such a red flag that I decided to accept another offer without bothering to continue with the process.

within 2 weeks of applying got an email to set up a phone interview with HR. Went over my resume and pay after that I got an email to set up an interview with the project manager.

The interview process was difficult. The process and questions were difficult. I liked the interview. It was great. I was asked questions about myself. I was asked variety of question.

I went through 4 rounds of interviews for a People Partner role, speaking with 5 different people at the company. I was told after the 4th round that a decision would be made the following week. I reached out directly via email that following week for an update. With no response after 48 hours I followed up again via email. Still no response from anyone for an additional week. I would have appreciated a simple "we are taking more time with our decision" email from someone during that time. Now today I finally received an automated "thanks but no thanks" email saying that I was not a fit. No mention of the fact that I had gotten to the final rounds of interviews for the role. No apology for ignoring my request for an update. As someone who has been a recruiter before, I would never treat a candidate this way. Candidates who make it to the final round at least deserve the 5 minutes it takes to write an original email, or even better a quick phone call. I know people are busy and emails can get overlooked, but the lack of professionalism at the end of this interview experience was really extraordinary.

I first had a screening interview with the recruiter, then a 2nd interview with the hiring manager. 3rd interview was to give a presentation of previous product owned to a group of individuals who represented cross-functional teams. Followed by interviews with other PMs, software development managers and a software engineer.

The interview process was smooth, and everyone was friendly and honest. The team was impressive, and I enjoyed meeting each of them. The surprising part came after the interviews. I received an offer, Ancestry negotiated salary with me, and both sides seemed excited. I had upcoming parental leave with my then current employer, and raised this with Ancestry as a reality of my situation. My aim was to see if we could brainstorm the right approach for my own family’s childcare coverage. I didn’t demand anything, and left the door open for Ancestry to say, “sorry we won’t support any leave” and we could still move forward. The HM told me she would speak internally and get back to me within the next day or two. I never heard from her again. I followed up with the HM and recruiter a couple of times, but received nothing back. Finally, a week after I raised the parental leave situation, the recruiter contacted me to tell me Ancestry was rescinding the offer. What a terrible experience! If you’re a family product and claim to be a family company, please treat people accordingly. It’s never acceptable or appropriate to ghost someone, particularly when a direct conversation is all that’s needed.

The process was very long and drawn out and took three months. There was an extra interview step added at the end which wasn't communicated along the way and extended the process unnecessarily. There was really poor communication of the results of each stage, and then the HR partner I was using was away at the end of the process so I was passed on to another who asked me to call them to find out I didn't get the job late on a friday night in a different time zone which cost me a lot of money and emotional distress.

After a questionnaire through email, I was invited to have a 45min remote interview with a senior PM. The interview started well, but halfway through, I could totally see that they muted the call, and they were distracted, talking and laughing clearly with someone behind their camera!!

The process took a little while so don't get discouraged if it takes several months. When they were ready everything moved swiftly. My interview was over Zoom and a panel of 4 people interviewed me. I felt comfortable and at ease.