I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at VREAL (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2015
Interview
Had a great time meeting the team at VREAL. Felt like a small exciting startup in a great position to take advantage of the upcoming wave of VR entertainment. Most of the technical screening occurred over phone interviews, and was flown out to Seattle to meet the team to ensure proper cultural fit with the team. I ended up taking a different job in a different field (Deep Learning/AI), but it was a difficult decision considering my positive experience with VREAL.
The interview process itself was really thoughtful. I was provided a nice hotel for 2 nights in downtown Seattle and they even flew my girlfriend with me to feel out the city. We were even invited to the CEO's home and taken out to dinner one evening.
The offer and equity was also solid for the Seattle market. I'll definitely keep them in mind for the future!
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at VREAL (Seattle, WA) in Sep 2016
Interview
VREAL pulled their offer after I tried to negotiate it. They refused to listen to any of my points and he just shut down. The compensation discussion was the most terse and adversarial discussion I've ever had on any job offer.
VREAL is a really disorganized $3m seed funded startup. It is clear that they have growing pains. They have no HR staff currently either and that is a real disservice to them. I was a remote candidate and it was like pulling teeth to get them to pay for a hotel's night and airfare, even though they reached out to me initially. They refused to cover local transportation and meal expenses for expensive downtown Seattle.
The onsite interview was a breeze. None of the software engineers asked any whiteboard coding questions. It was all just about soft skills and experiences. That is actually pretty alarming to me. How are they vetting their hires then? The entire staff other than the CTO and CEO seemed really demoralized and unexcited. That is pretty soul sucking for a 14 man startup. I had a duo engineer interview for one of my interviews. One of the engineers refused to talk to me at all. It made that interview really awkward, adversarial, and difficult. The other engineer did his best to lead the entire interview discussion.
The onsite interview was haphazardly organized. People didn't know who was next to interview. It was clear that none of the interviewers prepared and read my resume before hand. A lot of time was spent reiterating my background.
VREAL did not respect my time there. I was having a major surgery the next day and they did not want to wait until after that surgery to have the onsite interview. I had to leave early on my flight out. My interview with the CTO was cut really short as I just realized that I had to make my flight. He wasn't aware of my flight schedule and was quite visibly annoyed when I ended the interview at that time. That probably added to the negative experience in the offer stage. I barely made my flight. I got to the gate 15 minutes before the departure time.
There are so many red flags that I shouldn't of entertained an offer in the first place. I was just chalking it up to thinking maybe the team had an off day. If anyone else interviews here go in open with both eyes.
