Regional Partner

Recent interview experiences for dev role

Interview experience and unfair practices If luck is not in your favour, you might do everything right and still not get selected. Here's my experience so far with a few companies I had bad experience with : #Nielsen - Did not revert back to me for almost a month. When they did, they kept another round of interview as my final round and communicated that I was selected. After taking all the documents, they scheduled yet another round with the director and said it will be the final round. Then again, they reached out to me saying we need to keep another round for formality and would not be technical. To my surprise, it was indeed a technical discussion that I was completely unprepared for. The last communication came from them that they CANNOT match my expectations on the compensation as the last round didn't go well. #UIPath All my interview rounds went really well and in fact in one of the rounds the manager gave me an informal confirmation that I will be hired. But then, HR reached out to me that one of the rounds didn't go well and hence they will need to reschedule it. I was okay with that and prepared really well, but during the interview the interviewer did not ask much of technical questions. It was a design round and he was not even interested in the question or my solution. I had to ask him explicitly if he wants me to go through the solution. As a result, the decision was negative. #Twilio Same story as UIPath #Rakuten The interview process took 1 month. I finished all the rounds and HR communicated that the result was positive and asked to submit the documents. HR ghosted me for a week and then informed me that the last round didn't have a positive feedback and hence can't proceed with my position. When I asked her why it was communicated positively earlier, she simply denied it. #F5 Networks They took all my rounds, including the cultural fitment. The director told me during his discussion that he is looking forward to me joining the team. HR expedited the process to finish all my rounds early as the position was urgent and said she will rollout the offer soon. Then, two weeks passed and no response from them. Later, she informed me that they decided to go against other candidate as he came through some referrals. # HPE It has happened twiced that the HR called saying my profile is shortlisted and was behind me to submit the application so that they can schedule the interview. After submitting the application, I got a rejection mail within a week. #Infracloud I went till the last round. It was taken by a female lead who was extremely unprofessional, and asked questions about the keywords that she knew. If I answered with the correct explanation and theory, she would only see if the keyword matches else reject my answers. These experiences shatters a person's confidence completely. And makes you wonder, even with right skills, amazing interview feedbacks, things can still go wrong and you have no control over it. But I wish the interview processes are fair, and one gets what they struggle for.

The way I see it - who's sitting on the interview panel is more important than the candidate sitting across from them.

And I am being explicit - not equally BUT MORE IMPORTANT But we pay the least attention to that part - by design or by choice. It’s okay if you don’t agree. But answer this: - Do you know why your panel is structured the way it is? Is it based on strategy or convenience? Is it intentional or arbitrary? - Who says they're competent interviewers? Just because your Tech Talent Leader or someone from Y department vouched for them doesn't mean they are good and know how to evaluate talent. - Are you sure you are not confusing availability with competence? Is the person who's always free to jump on interviews also the best person to interview for the role and represent your company? - Is someone's shortlist/rejection ratio biasing your opinion? "Oh, he rejects so many candidate - his bar is really high!" That’s flawed logic. Also, just because someone passes too many candidates to the next round doesn't mean they're bad. Maybe the pool presented to them was strong, or the criteria given were so basic that most candidates passed. - What are they even evaluating for and How? Are they asking the same generic questions over and over? Are they aligned on what success looks like? Or are they winging it? Facts as is.. - Average panels can’t recognize extraordinary talent - they reject it - Egos on your panel will sabotage brilliance to protect their own insecurities - Bias is born in panels, not pipelines (error are made in pipelines) - Panels sends a signal outs - Good or Bad - Unprepared interviewers are worse than unaccepted offers - Most panels don’t represent your culture - A panel that can't inspire confidence in candidates will never attract top-tier talent, no matter how good your brand is - You can't fix your hiring funnel if the panel is broken at the core The way you build and manage your interview panel is a direct reflection of the maturity of your TA philosophy. If you're not intentional about who's in the room, you're straight up gambling.

Preparation for PM interviews

Just had the first round for a PM interview (had already done the initial interaction), was given an assignment which we discussed. Then the person told me they'd be taking 3 case questions right at that moment - Completely unprepared. Went okay I guess and they told me that next week I'd have another round with 2 of their teammates. Pls help a bro out with what all should I prepare for the next round. :)