Fragen in Vorstellungsgesprächen bei Studio71 für Front End Engineer

Bewerbung

Ich habe mich online beworben. Der Vorgang dauerte mehr als 3 Wochen. Vorstellungsgespräch absolviert im Oktober 2015 bei Studio71 (San Francisco, CA (Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika)).

Vorstellungsgespräch

I began this process in early October 2015 and recently finished this past week.

CDS called me to set up an informal screening initially with lead front end developer. We discussed the company, it's culture, and the role at length. He told me that the next steps would involve a take home challenge utilizing the React framework and if all went well, they would bring me in to meet the team. The important thing at this point that he stressed was the fact that they "prefer" to have candidates show their chops through an applicable coding exercise rather than irrelevant whiteboarding. This was encouraging to me. It told me a lot about the kind of company and how they evaluated potential in candidates in a relevant way. I continued the application process with them.

After submitting my coding challenge, CDS failed to get back to me for a week and half. I sent the obligatory and polite emails letting them know that I was anxiously awaiting and they responded shortly after that time to come meet the team and discuss the position further.

Here's went it all went wrong...

Initially, I was scheduled to meet with two employees from CDS for a maximum time of an hour. (Half hour meeting a piece) My interview ended up somewhere around 3 hours. (An hour and half with each person) I'd like to say that that time was spent productively and proactively but it did not.

My first interviewer was a dedicated BACK END developer who began straight away by taking out a dry erase marker and asking me to query several databases. Again, I applied for a FRONT END position and was told initially how much this company DID NOT wish to promote irrelevant whiteboarding. I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they wanted to see how a front end person would think in a back end related context. Perhaps that was my mistake because as the hour and half went by, he was not paying attention! Continually I would notice him checking emails and repeating questions to answers I already gave because he wasn't paying attention. He just didn't seem to care. To rub salt in the wounds further, he belittled my portfolio and criticized my knowledge on back end technologies.

When I did get a [brief] chance to ask him questions, he was flippant and curt. This company has another location in LA and when I asked him about co-workers at this location it's relationship with the SF office, he began slamming the LA office and insisting on how much the SF office HATES them. Talk about bad company culture! In the end, he acknowledged how little his opinion mattered in the interview process since I was clearly interested in the front end. In all, a complete waste of time.

My next interviewer was the lead front end engineer whom I spoke with over the phone. (The same guy that told me about the coding challenge and lack of technical whiteboarding for this interview process) At this point I had a bad taste for the company but figured once again, I should stick it out and prove myself worthy for the position I applied for. I knew my experience was going to get a lot worse when I saw him come in with a packet of interview questions, pens, and extra paper. He sat down, gave me a copy of the interview packet and got right to it...

I don't mind so much that this company decided to put me through such infamous and irrelevant whiteboard challenges. I mind that they lied straight from the beginning and expressed how they DID NOT perform interviews this way. And the point of the coding challenge? NULL because we did not discuss, go over, or even acknowledge the fact that I spent the time and effort to create something for them.

A clear disappointment and waste of time. Engineer applicants be wary and tread lightly.