Tom Sawyer Software interview questions

The total process consited of several interviews: 1) A non-technical remote interview 2) A technical remote interview 3) A technical on-site interview A variety of topics were addressed in the first one. The rest included algorithmic and hands-on exercises and technical discussions.

I applied online and a week or two later was contacted by a recruiter to set up a phone screening. The call was three days later and lasted about 30 minutes. I was asked basic stuff about my experience, salary requirements, why I want to leave current job, etc. A week later I was invited to the office for one-on-one interviews with two people. My interview was the following week. The first person was nice and she asked a lot of very specific job-related questions and hypotheticals and questions about my background. The next person I spoke to was not very friendly. She never smiled and it seemed like she didn't want to be there. It made me quite uncomfortable and more nervous than usual. After the interviews, I had to do a skills test (I knew about it before the interview). They wanted to test writing, editing, and MS Word skills. I'm actually a very good writer, but not when I only have thirty minutes to write why I am the best candidate AND write about how I would describe that company to someone. I'm glad I spent some time on the website to be able to get out a few sentences out about that. The editing part was kind of difficult, but again, I only had thirty minutes. I like to take my time with that kind of stuff, plus at work, I have a reference manual in case I'm unsure of something. The MS Word part was easy if you're aware of all the things you can do in Word. I understand wanting to test people on those things, but the time limit is unrealistic and not being able to reference something is unfair. There are a lot of different little rules when it comes editing and it's impossible to remember each and every one of them unless it's something you've been doing all day every day as a career. Maybe just ask people to bring in a writing sample because I'm sure my 15-minute essay on why I am an ideal candidate was as horrible as my handwriting. Anyway, after 4 hours (!) of being there, the recruiter walked me to the door and said, "Talk to you next week?" I said yes, and I left. That was over two months ago and I have not heard anything. Obviously, I did not get the job, but to not follow up with me is rude, unacceptable, and unprofessional. Unfortunately, it seems commonplace in the Bay Area to just ghost on the candidates you don't want, even after they've given you large chunks of their day. I had to use vacation time to go to the interview at Tom Sawyer, so it would have been nice to receive a canned e-mail stating that they were not going to move forward. People deserve at least that from interviewers.