Before even getting to interview there is questionnaire about your experience
interview 1
- 1-on-1 meeting with the Engineering manager
- Usual questions about technical and work experience - seemed to focus on knowledge about front end architecture this line of questioning may have been guided by the input of the questionnaire
- Seeming a lot of questions about conflict - to the point were I started to wonder if dealing with conflict had been a problem for the company in the past.
- There was a few lines said at the end that was a friendly style "get to know you" - but this was kind of throw away. I think there was a missed opportunity really - these interviews are an opportunity for candidates to get to know people they might be working with. Also I think companies need to understand that its not just them interviewing the candidate - the candidate is interviewing them as well.
Timed tech test
Next step was meant to be an online timed test with a follow up tech interview to discuss the test
- The tech test might be one of the worse I've encountered - its in the vein of "Lets get you to writing frontend related code in an environment where you can't see or click on the ui you are creating" which is kind of stupid. They do say that you can use your own IDE/playground to write the code and paste it in but then suddenly having to set up you IDE or playground for each question isn't without additional stress.
- For the first question was how to build a list in js that allows you to click and change the order of things in a list. I went with using a playground so I could at least see and play with what I was building. When it came to copy and paste what I had written into the textfield low and behold the code would not paste it.. 20 seconds later the tiem for the question was up! Again this is stupid.
- Some of the questions asked you to look at some code examples and answer some questions about them. fair enough. Specifically for a question about a piece of react code, some of the answer were worded that badly that badly that they almost didn't make sense. There was a sample of class based React component - I haven't touched React class based code since 2018 so the question felt dated. And some typescript "does your head work like a compiler" style questions - these are always fairly pointless.
- Having give up on using a playground to write some code I started trying to write a React version of the same list that made up the first exercise in the test UI. Part way though I give up the ghost and decided I probably didn't want the job.
In summary
The whole interview process felt very unfriendly and a little inhuman. The tech test felt like a box ticking exercise that certainly wouldn't have allowed me, or anyone else, to show our talents and what I can bring to a company. The thought about having a follow up converstation based on that tech test and writing simple lists.. not great. Though I hate the time they take there might be something to say for the good old fashioned take home test - at least you have the option to take the code in an interesting direction and show off your skills little.
In fairness the one person I did speak to seemed fairly nice even if there wasn't much in the way of small talk.
Perhaps a better use of time would have been to discuss some recommendations for improvements on their sites. Like accessibility - come on guys keyboard navigation on your forms should at least be a basic.
Jokes aside this is all said with the hope that the company improves its interviewing process - what the company does is actually a nice service and could be really interesting. The interview process as it is lets them down.
From this interview experience I have no desire to work here.
