A week after submitting an application on Codeplay's site, I was contacted to schedule the first Skype interview. When I asked if the interview could be done over Google Hangouts, (I prefer not to add arbitrary accounts to my Skype contacts) I got the response "it is easier for us to continue with Skype since we have our facilities set-up in advance for this." The "facilities" turned out to be a dedicated Skype account for conducting interviews. The first interview was with three persons: one of them was a manager, the other two were engineers. The majority of the questions were not technical, just going over every item in the CV. At the end of the interview they asked two technical questions: "How to implement printf() on a GPU?", "What happens when a branch is executed on a GPU and the kernel execution paths diverge?" Most of the talking was done by the manager. One of the engineers didn't say a single word during the interview.
Ten days after the first interview they contacted me to schedule the second Skype interview, offering three dates/times to choose from. The second Skype interview was with the CTO and an engineer. Again, the interview was not very technical, only going over the CV item by item with some repetitions, because the CTO didn't seem to be focused and didn't pay attention to my answers to his questions. As in the first interview, most of the talking and questioning was by the CTO, while the other person asked only one question and didn't talk at all. Most of my professional experience is from working in various hi-tech companies in the Silicon Valley in the US. I explained that I changed jobs when I saw more interesting career opportunities, which is perfectly normal in the US job market. However, that seemed to upset the CTO, his reaction was: "so this is how you are, jump jobs when there's an opportunity?" Such an accusation during an interview is almost unthinkable in the US.
Nevertheless, a week after the second Skype interview, they decided to invite me for an onsite interview. I'm not located in the UK, so initially they suggested I would fly to Edinburgh and back home the same day, and they would reimburse me the travel expenses. When they realized that wouldn't work, they offered to reimburse one night in a hotel. Normally, in the US if a company invites for an onsite interview, they book the airplane tickets, reserve a rental car for the ground transportation and reserve a room in a hotel if an overnight stay is inevitable, so the candidates don't need to handle this on their own. Here, I made all the travel arrangements and payed for them myself. The third onsite interview was exactly the same as the two previous Skype interviews. The interviewers were a manager and three engineers. The manager did all the talking and questioning, going over the CV for the third time. She was obviously uninterested and not focused on the conversation. Two engineers asked some minor questions, the third one didn't say a single word. The interview was conducted in a conference room that is next to the entrance in the building. They didn't show me their office, didn't talk about the work conditions, and didn't invite me for a lunch, which is almost a must for onsite interviews in other companies. Given all that, it is not clear why they invited me onsite. The last interview could have been done via Skype just as well (or skipped at all). I asked when they would give me the feedback? They promised to contact me by the next Monday (the interview was on Wednesday). Exactly two weeks after the third interview they contacted me and informed that they cannot offer a position "on this occasion." The reason was that "we might not be able to provide exactly the kind of environment here that would keep you both motivated and interested in the work you have a passion for." Could one write something more ridiculous as a reason for rejecting an employment application? To give Codeplay credit, some other companies would never contact an unsuccessful candidate with any feedback or even to inform that the application is rejected.
The whole process took nearly 3 months. Now more than two weeks after the last interview, they haven't reimbursed me for the travel expenses. Codeplay is the cheapest company I have ever dealt with.
