First interview - The first interview was a technical screening by a recruiter with no technical experience. Everyone passes this interview. - Neither of the interviewers were willing to answer any questions during the interview. - They did not introduce themselves or the company or provide details about the role. - They offered no feedback at the end and left very abruptly after it was over even though I said I had questions. - They refused to turn on their cameras. - No conversation. The interview started, they asked questions about object oriented programming and Java and then left. - I looked up my interviewer afterwards and he is a recruiter and not an engineer, which explains why there was no discussion or conversation from his end and why so many of his questions had 1-word answers. For any question in which I gave an in-depth answer he was confused and unable to recognize my answer, so he would ask for something simpler like a yes/no because that’s probably all his answer sheet has. - One question was “Can function parameters be overloaded?” This was such a leading and weirdly-phrased question but I spent 2 minutes explaining what it means to overload a method and how to do it with an example and then the recruiter asked me “So yes or no?” He knows nothing about programming and he’s supposed to evaluate whether you know Java or not. - Many of the questions were easy, some were the vocabulary-type questions you might find in a Quizlet or a PowerPoint for Programming 1 but then forget when you’re actually in the industry. - Also, he called me 3 times the day of the interview to make sure that I was going to show up. In the entire interview process, he called me way too many times and he wanted my WhatsApp information as well. Second interview - A couple hours later that same day, the recruiter followed and DMed me on LinkedIn to ask me to join a second interview in 10 minutes, and then he called me 5 minutes later that they were waiting for me in the Google Meets room. Phenomenal communication on their part. - The second interview was just as bizarre and awkward, but with 100 brand new red flags (don’t have time to go through all of them). They were so unprofessional it was very difficult for me to take them seriously at all. - His opening question was “Do you know the process” and it was so incredibly difficult getting him to elaborate or repeat the question, and he would not move on. At this point he had finally turned his camera on but I wish he hadn’t because he was staring at me an inch away from the camera in awkward silence. There is no right answer except to leave the meeting. - This time around I was finally able to ask questions even if it did take at least 2 tries to get straightforward answers to very simple questions. He tries very hard to avoid questions. I asked him how much the average person makes, he asked me how much I want and didn’t answer my question. I asked again and he spent a few minutes sending me an email with positive testimonies. I asked him 2 more times and he said maybe he would try to get me $65k, which still doesn’t really answer my question, but it’s something. Considering he was about to give me an offer, it’s crazy that he was this hesitant to let me know how much I would be making for the next 2 years. - From my understanding, everyone passes the technical screening. It’s only there to see how many weeks of training they want you to do. - If the HR recruiter (who knows 0% of Java) determines that you know 90%+ of Java, you do 1 week of training in which they just teach you how to market yourself. Given their impressive lack of professionalism, I doubt these marketing tips are any good. If you know 50% of Java, they give you 4 weeks. If you know 0%, you do 8 weeks of training in a course titled “Java for Beginner”. So no matter what, there is required unpaid training. I was told I need 4 weeks. - You don’t get paid during training. In fact, the training you do seems to be one of the ways this company makes money off of you. They sell online courses. - He stressed many times that the courses are “free”. However, you have to sign a legally binding ISA (Income Share Agreement) contract before taking the course that you have to work for them for a year afterwards and also pay them 15% of your first year salary. Also, if you take the “free” course and then leave the company, you are penalized $5000. Paying $5000 is not free. - 15% of your first year salary would be around $10k (for what the very mediocre average salary). If you’re wondering if this is for you, ask yourself if you’re desperate enough to pay $10,000 for only 4 weeks (80-hours) of an online Java course. - Not to say this is all a scam because you know what you’re getting into if you ask enough questions and pressure them enough to actually give answers. Yes, you will learn and you may even land your first software engineering role, but it’s just a really bad deal because there are way better options
