Upside Business Travel Interview Questions

- Phone Screen with HR - Technical Assessment - Phone call with engineer to go over assessment and answer some questions - Onsite/final interview which consisted of 4 rounds with 2 of them being technical

First round: phone screen Second round: onsite with a group of around four employees. While I was told the result would come out soon, the hiring process nonetheless dragged for a while. Overall a laid back environment.

Scheduled phone interview one week ahead but no one called. HR staff is rude and full and trying to find excuses. Stay away from this company, they’re not even honest to work for.

We attempted to meet several times, and then they disengaged in a rude way. The first attempt, there was some phone issue and I didn't receive a call from the recruiter (I followed up via email when they hadn't called within 10mins of our scheduled appointment, to see what was going on). The second attempt, I got caught up in a discussion with a home repair contractor, and missed our appointment, apologizing promptly and moving things on my schedule to reschedule with them at their earliest convenience. The third attempt, the recruiter didn't call at all, nor did they follow-up to apologize or reschedule (I reached out to them via email, and they didn't follow-up at all). A week or so later, after some prompting from a 3rd party recruiter, I was informed, indirectly, that they didn't want to continue in the process because we hadn't been able to connect on the phone. Something is amiss at Upside, and I'm thinking I dodged a bullet.

Initial phone call with a member of the team and head of quality engineering. Then invited to visit the Washing DC office to interview 1:1 with three members of the quality team.

I have to give a mixed review here because the people I spoke to on the phone and in-person were wonderful. There was an initial phone screen with an HR Recruiter, followed by a phone interview with the hiring manager, and then an in-person interview 1:1 interview. It would have been helpful when they scheduled the in-person interview if they had provided a heads up on what to expect for parking and entering the building, as security needed to call them from the front desk and then give me elevator access. Further, I had to sign in on an iPad where I signed an NDA and had my picture taken, which I stumbled upon while waiting in a reception area. Not hard to figure out, but it would have been nice if they had given a heads up to be on the lookout. Finally, I received an email last week that they wanted to schedule a call to provide an update on the position. I responded immediately and also accepted a calendar meeting invite for the next morning. They didn't call as they had scheduled, so I emailed them asking if there were difficulties and to let me know if they'd like to reschedule. That was last week and they have not responded. I'm assuming they were not going to call to offer me a position, which I have no hard feelings about, but I think they could improve on their communication through the process. All that said, I got the impression that Upside is a great company to work for, full of fun, smart, and ambitious people.

I initially applied online, hearing back about their interest after about a month. I forgot I applied and I thought the timing on their end was a little unexpected, but nonetheless I set up a phone interview with their internal recruiter more than a week later, in order to accommodate their busy schedule. Here is where the red flags begin. I got an email a few hours before the call asking for a reschedule. I politely agreed and set up another in a week. The recruiter called a few minutes late and appeared extremely unprepared, and didn't even acknowledge the fact that she was late. Additionally, she seemed uninformed and was very hesitant when I asked generic questions about the company and its culture. It felt like she was reading off a prepared script and writing down everything I was saying. I thought perhaps she was a recent hire, so I decided to save my questions for later. The next step in the process was a take home exam. A few days after turning it in, I received another generic email from a different recruiter stating their interest and asking if I had time for an introductory call. After asking them to clarify, they apologized and said that this was the next round phone interview. What was even more strange was the next interviewer asked if this was my first call. I got the sense that there was no coordination or planning throughout the interview process. A week after my second phone interview, I was invited onsite to their D.C. office for the final stage. I thought it was weird how all of the interviewers held chief level or senior positions and how none of them shared the position I applied for. When I got to the office, I was indirectly greeted by multiple small groups of people walking to and from the bathroom or elevator. It was nice hearing them talk about things outside of work and receiving gentle nods and smiles here and there. That being said, the office felt very crammed and the grim lighting inside on a sunny day made it feel even more depressing. I didn't see stressed out people or panic, but I also did not see laughters and collaboration. The interviews were mostly behavioral and conversational. None of the interviewers seemed to have an agenda, so the interviews naturally deviated towards random topics and questions. That being said, when things got technical, I started to see their faces becoming confused and I felt like they were getting uncomfortable. I was under the impression that many of them came from nontechnical backgrounds, that happened to jump on the tech bandwagon recently. There was even a lot of praise and excitement for the recent discovery of technical concepts from an ancient book in the industry. How I received my rejection was definitely the icing on the cake. I was told after the onsite that they move really quickly, so I would hear back in a few days. After silence for multiple weeks, I sent a quick blurb to the original recruiter for an update. After another week of being ignored, I received a generic copy-paste rejection email from the same recruiter saying the position has been filled and that I should check out the career page for current opportunities. And you guessed it, it still has the position I applied for listed. I couldn't tell if it's company culture to not show empathy to potential candidates because of other priorities, or if it's certain individuals in HR that are indifferent, but I hope Upside can accurately reflect the perception it's trying to uphold through actions and not words. Friendly Glassdoor responses from the CEO does help, but eventually if too many candidates are having negatives experiences, it will start to come off as unauthentic.

Tell them about your work experience, chat about the comp, etc. code challenge Did the code challenge, pretty sure everything was correct. There was a time limit of 3 days. The issue I have is there was 0 feedback provided, there is nothing that I gained or learned from the experience. Considering that they let a bunch of employees go with no notices, from other reviews it is not surprising that they would be considerate to someone who doesn't even work there. I will not do another take home code challenge again, it is lazy and inconsiderate, there are other ways, that are considerate and respectful, to interview candidates.

I had a phone screen with a recruiter and the Head of HR. She then sent over a take home assignment to be completed in a couple of days. I turned in the assignment and never heard anything back from either the recruiter or the head of HR even after I reached out to ask how I did on the homework assignment.