All interviews went well, until I met the co-founder of Popcore Thomas Heinze, who turned out to be one of the rudest, most abrasive, and privileged people I have ever spoken to. The interview process was really well managed by the Talent Acquisition Specialist. After vetting me, he sent over a game design test. The test was concise, and took about 4h to work on. I received positive feedback regarding my test. Before each interview, the Talent Acquisition Specialist helped me prepare for the calls with a Lead Game Designer, a Game Designer, and Game Director by giving me tips about my interviewers. I enjoyed speaking to all of them. And then, I had a call with the co-founder. The call with Thomas immediately starts with him continuously cutting me off when I was speaking. He was more keen to show how smart he was, rather than actually listen. Then when we got into my accomplishments, he took every opportunity to belittle them and said they were nothing to be proud of. It was a humiliating experience where I just had to sit there and take this vitriol for 1 hour. The culture page of Popcore lists Ownership and Equality as two of their values. But, after chatting with multiple people in the studio, it is clear to me that it is a top down hierarchy organization. While you are expected to act like an entrepreneur, you will need to work in an organization where the each game greenlight process needs to be approved by 1-2 men at the top. The About page says - 'Everyone is encouraged to speak'. But you most probably won't be heard.

Interview was a joke. An amusing, but not quite funny joke. A waste of time. Structured in a way that I was asked an open ended question, we talked, and then the interviewer read me a long version of the answer he was expecting. There was a lot of time spent on him reading the information. It was curious and even fun to be a part of an interview like this. Something new for me. But it felt like I am being interviewed for a junior/internship position (I was supposedly interviewed for a senior position). The interviewer had a very thick french accent and at first I though he is not speaking english. I worked and lived abroad for many years, never any problem communicating. It took a minute to adapt but during the interview I didn’t understand around 10% what was being said and I gave up after asking many times to please repeat what was said. The person interviewing me was probably frustrated as I was, towards the end of interview he impatiently started finishing my sentences, putting words in my mouth, things I did not say or think. Rude and certainly not how I expect to be interviewed. Perhaps understandable because of our basic trouble to communicate. My sense was that the interviewer has worked in Unity only for a few years in a very narrow-focused manner and doesn’t understand his open ended questions feel more like an invitation to a dialog rather than inspiring a straightforward question (I got this sense from what I assume were expected answers he read after each question). He introduced himself as senior but I would put him in a mid-level level at best and I felt I have much deeper understanding of some of the topics than him. Not because I am special but because his answers do not match my experience in actually solving those very problems through a long period of time. He disagreed with some of my answers so I though great, I always look forward to learning something new. But it bugged me so much that I actually went to google my own answers after and turns out I wasn’t wrong (he was). But again, he felt rushed and I wonder if he even understood me what I was saying some of the time. After we were done, I felt pretty clear that the interview was a failure for both parties (possibly a candid camera situation gone bad) so I didn’t think about it until I received an email asking to schedule a time for feedback. I thought OK maybe they are experimenting with their interview process and want to ask for some feedback. A few weeks later we have the call. But no, on this call they never asked for feedback. On this call I received their opinions of me. That I never asked for. That felt strange. Don’t get me wrong, I savour feedback and think it is crucial component of working in groups. There is always ways to improve the workflow through being transparent. I do think that. But when we are both intent on NOT moving forward.. why insist on scheduling time for ‘feedback’? I found that curious. So here is my feedback to Popcore: Keep to proven interview formats and maybe use this format for junior/internship positions. Do make sure the person interviewing has more than sufficient spoken english qualities. If you expect a singular answer do not ask an open ended question - ask a concrete, specific problem to be solved (test are usually helpful here as well). This was an unusual, partly fun experience that I would like to not repeat.