I applied online. I interviewed at VMware (Bellevue, WA) in Jan 2018
Interview
Recruiter reached out in response to my application on LinkedIn for a Senior Software Engineer position in their office in Bellevue, WA. First step was a HackerRank test then I was invited for on-site interviews which were such a mess.
My first interview was with a senior technical team member who barely allowed me any chance to talk, told me 3 times that "my responses were not good enough for a senior engineer", left the interview almost abruptly after 30 minutes without setting up phone call with my next interviewer, which - according to the receptionist I asked for help - he was supposed to do.
My next interview was with a remote team member who seemed to have been brought in at the last minute to fill in for an interviewer who could not make it. He asked if I had a laptop so he could send me a coding question online. I told him I was not asked to bring one, inquired whether they had loaners but they didn't. We agreed to reschedule the interview on another day. I reached out to the recruiter with all these details and told her I was not interested anymore.
I was later contacted by the Product Director who was generally friendly and candid. He apologized for the bad experience, said the team member I met with was "challenging to manage" yet too vital to let go, and promised to have a conversation with him. He asked me to resume the interviews, said I probably won't have to work with that individual. I thanked him in response but decided I was not interested.
2
Other Senior Software Engineer Interview Reviews for VMware
Had a call with the hiring manager who only seemed interested in why I was leaving my previous job and not what I have been working on or my skillset. At the end of the call I didn't seem like that was a good impression and decided not to pursue.
Got the coding round and got rejected though all test cases passed. The recruiter sent a hacker rank directly. Got everything executed but still sent a rejection since they got another candidate for the position
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Hackerrank questions: String manipulation, what is a middleware
in total i had 3 rounds, first round was coding which was easy problems. next two rounds were technical interviews which were medium to hard and went in depth C++ concepts.