I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Homey (UK) (London, England) in Jul 2023
Interview
I found this role through a recruiter. I received an email from the founder saying that they are skipping stage 1 and going straight to stage 2 which is a technical task.
I didn't want to invest time on the task without even having a chat with someone within the company to determine whether this role and company was for me. So I replied to the founder asking to have the stage 1. He replied saying that they wanted to have the same process for all candidates to keep it fair. Which makes me wonder why say that they are skipping stage 1 if they don't actually have one?
I replied to him saying that the interview process is a two way street and that it is not fair to expect candidates to commit a large amount of time on the technical test if they are not willing to extend the same courtesy to commit to a 15 min intro call. To me, this shows a lack of respect to the candidates, so it makes me think that they would also not respect their employees.
He replied saying that many candidates have submitted this task without an initial interview phase, and that shows their level of commitment to Homey. This is taking advantage of candidates who are feeling spooked by the current hiring climate and who would just go along with it out of desperation.
He also mentioned that they are small start up with limited time. We are all limited on time, so I don't understand why he thinks his time is more valuable than candidates who are very likely completing several tech tests simultaneously in their personal time.
Lots of red flags that came out from just few emails.
When I explained my misgivings about the process and gave some feedback, I was patronisingly told that tech tests are a standard part of recruitment processes (which... is not new information for me and also not what I was concerned about) and that it is the only way they can vet candidates (which is so wrong it is almost funny). The only reason I am leaving this review here is because they so badly missed the point of my concerns and clearly won't do anything in the future to address this feedback and stop taking advantage of candidates.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical task to build a rails app and also provide questions that I would have asked my team and then answer them.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Homey (UK) (London, England) in Oct 2024
Interview
Zero respect for your time (or you)
After going straight to the tech challenge from recruiter call I completed the challenge within the time frame and submitted it for review.
4 days later I receive a one line email asking for access.
Another 3 days later (Friday morning) the founder reaches out and asks if I'm free to call that day. I promptly reply and radio silence until the end of the day. The founder finally responds at 6pm, asking if I’d be free at 8pm for a call with a senior engineer that same evening.
Come 8pm the senior engineer was rude and unhelpful. The founder listened in on the call from a restaurant while out to dinner.
Fast forward another 3 days (and me chasing for an update) I receive only the following as feedback:
‘we are looking for someone more senior. Do stay in touch. Do you know anyone that might fit the bill?’
In my opinion such poor time management and lack of respect for prospective employees' time is a huge red flag and likely reflects how you will be treated as an employee, i.e with zero respect.