Had a chat with Nathan the Head of Data. Then another chat with two members of the analytics engineering team. These both were very positive, went very well and I received positive feedback even during the calls. Then I did take home test. Some basic SQL, it was fun, but wasn't analytics engineering specific. Following our call, Nathan messaged me saying, "thanks so much for your time yesterday, me and charlotte both really enjoyed it. we both agree you’d be a great addition to the team". And then progressed me to a final interview.
This final chat was with two of the companies founders. This was more of a formality and they were really excited for me to be potentially joining. Unfortunately, this stage was less positive, I found the founders to be a bit difficult to speak to. They asked me a few behavioral style questions. I then asked them a couple questions about the company and the product, and then, finally about the companies' future outlook. It's important to note that zeroheight had recently made a significant number of people redundant. I was concerned about this and respectfully asked about their funding rounds, fairly standard stuff. They were clearly taken aback at this question, were noticeably uncomfortable, bordering on upset on the call.
I was then rejected. Nathan, the Head of Data sent me some feedback that was very much at odds with my first two interviews and the feedback he had given me personally. The rejection reasons was that I did not live up to their "Lets be humble" company value in this final interview. The wording of the feedback was slightly problematic, suggesting that I myself was not "humble". The other piece of feedback was that I was unable to be "vulnerable" or "candid" in this last founders interview. Again, quite strong personal feedback. This was not my impression, as I felt that I answered all questions asked in a very honest way, giving pretty ideal model answers (I was lucky to have prepared for them quite well). I'm pretty confident I was rejected for asking about the company outlook, which ironically, the founders had a lot of trouble themselves being vulnerable and humble about!
I'm quite glad in retrospect that I was not offered the role, as I got the impression that it's not a place for independent driven people; my experience in the interviews made it clear that it's a bit of a soulless company with vague "cultural values" that the founders don't live up to (no surprises there).
This was a shame still, as up until that point I had genuinely enjoyed the process and, as mentioned, received glowing feedback from Nathan and the other team members. So, in conclusion, the cliché company values, funky founders, and wonky feedback after that last interview, I think I dodged a bullet!
