After I applied online, the system automatically sent me a 90-minute coding test. I unfortunately did not finish the test in time due to having IDE issues and general rustiness, so I submitted what I could. I finished it up in 30 minutes then sent a followup email with the code. They liked the initiative enough to invite me down for a face-to-face, which is the next step in the process. Keep in mind the coding test really -was- simple, and I would expect most people could do it under 60 minutes. Anyway, they told me to expect to be onsite for up to 4 hours, but it ended up extended to 5.5 hours. It was a great experience overall. I met with 6 people. My meeting with 4 out of 6 of them was fantastic. Some of them actually took me out to lunch! I did not have a very good time with the other 2 people. One of two had me do a "part 2" of the prior coding test using my own submitted code. I had to sit down with him at his own desk, which had two monitors and two sets of a keyboard and mouse. The monitors were duplicated so that we both had access to the same screen. Anyway, the issue was he would not give me more than 10 seconds to voice out my thought processes on how to solve the problem before he would just start typing. Every step of the way this happened until by the end I had not typed anything and he just said we would leave it where it was because we both knew where the program would go from there. At the time I thought he was fine with the idea of just having the collaboration, but in retrospect, I do not think he was pleased that I was unable to just start typing as soon as I was asked a question. The other guy I had issues with was the CTO. I asked him a lot of questions on growth at the company. There are no annual raises, which is why I asked how they combat inflation. I had asked someone else about it, but they told me to ask the CTO. Yet, the CTO could not give me a straight answer either, except that they loosely follow some chart to analyze someone's leadership ability. This company seems to have a very flat structure with nearly no growth opportunities. He came across as very transparent, which was great to see, but also very egocentric. Despite these negatives, I thought I had never had a better interview thus far in my career. I thought that because they were hiring across multiple levels and were growing at a rate of one new employee a month, that I was a shoe in. Not to mention they spent money to take me out to lunch. I left a very positive image to 4 out of the 6 people there. The CTO told me to expect to hear something within the next week. After a week, I heard nothing. I reached out to the office admin and she told me I was not going to be made a job offer. In complete surprise, I asked why they came to that decision, because it would help me in my career going forward to know what went wrong. She forwarded my message to the CTO and he said he could not tell me because of privacy policies, but assured me that "I was in the running". As if that is supposed to mean anything. I find it hard to believe that a policy prevents the CTO from telling me why I was rejected. Anyway, steer clear of this company. I have no doubt the CTO held tremendous weight in the decision making out of the 6 people, and he is not somebody I would want to work for.
