Recently I tried to apply for the Java Solutions Architect position at Backbase :
http://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/java-solutions-architect-JV_IC3064478_KO0,24_IE117266.htm?jl=1360877232&paoIdKey=MA==
The first interview was held by HR guy within 15-20 minutes with common psychological and characteristic screening questions. He did a good job and in a day advised that 2 further interviews will take place with their java team lead and senior architect guys separately one after one, 1 hour each. Alright.
Those 2 guys were rather punctual as the technical interviews commenced without any delay. That's the only positive feedback for them. Each of them neither had a list of java technical questions nor architectural ones. The only technical question I could remember from the java team lead is presented below. As for the architect guy, that were the same common boiler-plate questions ( see below ). Neither code nor architecture design questions were raised.
In a day I received the following Backbase resolution from those guys.
1. HR guy passed the following from the technical guys :
"quite outdated knowledge, narrow experience, mostly old school way of working, not so much into agile and craftsmanship practices.
"
2. The senior architect provided the following feedback to me :
"
first of all, appreciate your time talking with us. In addition, I can say, that I am most certain, that your are brilliant engineer, however, we are trying to fill in the positions that we currently have and we have certain expectation/requirement, one of them is also "fit into Backbase" culture. Unfortunately, we did not found you fitting our skills and culture requirements, which has nothing to do with you personally.
"
Now, here is my conclusion how technical java interviews are organized at Backbase :
1. That's the total waste of time for any serious developer having several companies to choose from in his further career path.
2. Technical interviewers have no knowledge how to achieve java background validation and system design skills assessment.
3. That was the strangest interview I ever had for 14 years of my developer career because the frustration comes from absence of an idea what went wrong.