I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Sentry (Stevens Point, WI) in Jul 2019
Interview
3 step process after applying:
Step 1) Record three short videos through their online portal answering various questions. Two standard "Why do you want to work here?" questions and one mildly technical but more conceptual OOP question. Was not a bad experience but felt very impersonal. I suspect it was just a measure to weed out bad candidates and there are apparently many applicants.
Step 2) Phone screening with a group of senior developers. Very technical, many OOP questions and related. Asked about job experience and the like. The most technical of all the interviews, this is probably the make or break it stage. If you are not proficient in your ability, you will not pass.
Step 3) In person interview. I personally had two different interviews, but the results may vary. Both groups were incredibly friendly, consisting of two managers each. The experience was pleasant and seemed mostly to gauge my ability to interact with others socially and see if I would fit on a team. Developers with poor social skills will likely not make it through this portion. This also included a surprise on-site saliva test, which was the only drug test I was given.
A short while after the third interview a background check was started on me, which is likely a sign of an impending offer. The background check took a ridiculous amount of time to complete and was incredibly in depth, even questioning one of my less conventional jobs and asking for detailed proof.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would create a program involving a deck of cards
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Sentry
Interview
Quick phone screening. Cannot say enough good things about the recruiter. She was great. Got to the technical interview and was underwhelmed by the team's effort. Complete lack of enthusiasm and engagement. Asked questions but didn't listen or respond to answers. I feel my time and effort were not respected, as I spent a week preparing for this specific interview, learning every aspect of their stack. I expected more and I got the feeling they already made a decision before my interview. Probably will not waste my time with this company again unless it's for a different department.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What work are you most proud of?
Walk through a problem and how you fixed it.
How would you troubleshoot a certain scenario? (Recent deployment impacting response times)
Interview with Software Engineering managers. Vetted personality and asked basic Java OOP questions, basic SQL questions, and a psuedocode challenge. The more you answered about the challenge correctly, the more complexity was thrown into the question.
In progress, going well so far. Interviewers very nice and passionate, seems like good company culture. Offers help on relocation. OA wasn’t too bad, time limit of one hour, very straight forward question with thorough description and examples