3 ms·

Maybe a good product but terrible company to interview with. I went through several rounds and was basically ghosted after the 4th with no explanation or follow

Maybe a good product but terrible company to interview with. I went through several rounds and was basically ghosted after the 4th with no explanation or follow up. The last interview was to write an blog post for their blog which I submitted and then didn’t hear back until continuously nagging months later. It was pretty disheartening since all of the interviews were some form of a take-home and I spent a combined total of ~10 hours or more.

NetOpWibby 2y ago
Were you at least paid?
- swyx 2y ago
  you know that paid interview processes are not the norm, "at least" is unlikely
  - nikkwong 2y ago
    If I was paid, I probably wouldn't be complaining publicly. :-) It's probably better for both interests if these types of engagements are paid.
    - fhd2 2y ago
      I've worked with paid take home tests for a while, but stopped again. Hiring managers started to make the assignments more convoluted, i.e. stopped respecting the candidate's time. Candidates, on the flip side, always said they don't want to bother with the bureaucracy of writing an invoice and reporting it for their taxes etc., so didn't want to be paid. Now my logic is: If a take home test is designed to take more than two hours, we need to redesign it. Two hours of interviews, two hours of take home test, that ought to suffice. If we're still unsure after that, I sometimes offered the candidate a time limited freelance position, paid obviously. We've ended up hiring everyone who went into that process though.
      - avandekleut 2y ago
        I just finished interviewing with a company called Infisical. The take-homes were crazy (the kind of thing that normally takes a few days or a week). I was paid but it took me 12 hours.
        nikkwong 2y ago
        Was the process worth it?
csomar 2y ago
> The last interview was to write an blog post for their blog Where you applying as a Software Dev.? Because that's not a software (or an interview) assignment.
- nikkwong 2y ago
  Yes I was applying for software engineer. I think they wanted engineers who were good at explaining the product to users.
  - csomar 2y ago
    Sure. Writing and a good command of the language is important. There are multiple ways to showcase that. Writing a blog post for their blog is not one of them.
    - nikkwong 2y ago
      I was willing to jump through hoops—I really wanted the job.
      - 55555 2y ago
        Did the blog post get published on their blog?
        nikkwong 2y ago
        I don't believe so.
j45 2y ago
Hope they paid for the work.
aitchnyu 2y ago
Did their engineers spend time with you or did they get their blog post otherwise? I once made 1 minute videos for interview process of an AI training data company. I have a hunch they were just harvesting the data.
- nikkwong 2y ago
  They did get the blog post but I don’t believe they used it; it’s possible that they didn’t think it was well written and that’s why I was ghosted but I will never know. I know they were interviewing many very talented people for the position. It’s okay to be disorganized as a startup, but I think that keeping people happy, employee or otherwise, should always be the top priority. It would have taken just a few seconds to write an email to me to reject me, and by not doing so, this comment has probably evolved into a big nightmare for them. I didn’t expect it to get this much attention, but yeah; I guess my general sentiment is shared by many.
lgrapenthin 2y ago
Such interview processes are big red flags. The company can't afford taking a risk with you and at the same time tests how desperate you are by making you work for free. They are likely short on cash and short on experience. Expect crunch and bad management. Run.
redwood 2y ago
Did they post the blog publicly?
jejeyyy77 2y ago
your first mistake was doing any kind of take-home exercise at all.
jph 2y ago
IMHO companies should aim for courteous interviews, with faster decisions, and if there's any take home work then it's fully paid. I've seen your work at Beaver.digital and on GetFractals.com. If you're still looking, feel free to contact me; I'm hiring for a startup doing AI/ML data analysis. Specifically Figma + DaisyUI + TypeScript + Python + Pandas + AWS + Postgres.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

NetOpWibby 2y ago

Were you at least paid?

swyx 2y ago
you know that paid interview processes are not the norm, "at least" is unlikely
- nikkwong 2y ago
  If I was paid, I probably wouldn't be complaining publicly. :-) It's probably better for both interests if these types of engagements are paid.
  - fhd2 2y ago
    I've worked with paid take home tests for a while, but stopped again. Hiring managers started to make the assignments more convoluted, i.e. stopped respecting the candidate's time. Candidates, on the flip side, always said they don't want to bother with the bureaucracy of writing an invoice and reporting it for their taxes etc., so didn't want to be paid. Now my logic is: If a take home test is designed to take more than two hours, we need to redesign it. Two hours of interviews, two hours of take home test, that ought to suffice. If we're still unsure after that, I sometimes offered the candidate a time limited freelance position, paid obviously. We've ended up hiring everyone who went into that process though.
    - avandekleut 2y ago
      I just finished interviewing with a company called Infisical. The take-homes were crazy (the kind of thing that normally takes a few days or a week). I was paid but it took me 12 hours.
      - nikkwong 2y ago
        Was the process worth it?

csomar 2y ago

> The last interview was to write an blog post for their blog Where you applying as a Software Dev.? Because that's not a software (or an interview) assignment.

nikkwong 2y ago
Yes I was applying for software engineer. I think they wanted engineers who were good at explaining the product to users.
- csomar 2y ago
  Sure. Writing and a good command of the language is important. There are multiple ways to showcase that. Writing a blog post for their blog is not one of them.
  - nikkwong 2y ago
    I was willing to jump through hoops—I really wanted the job.
    - 55555 2y ago
      Did the blog post get published on their blog?
      - nikkwong 2y ago
        I don't believe so.

j45 2y ago

Hope they paid for the work.

aitchnyu 2y ago

Did their engineers spend time with you or did they get their blog post otherwise? I once made 1 minute videos for interview process of an AI training data company. I have a hunch they were just harvesting the data.

nikkwong 2y ago
They did get the blog post but I don’t believe they used it; it’s possible that they didn’t think it was well written and that’s why I was ghosted but I will never know. I know they were interviewing many very talented people for the position. It’s okay to be disorganized as a startup, but I think that keeping people happy, employee or otherwise, should always be the top priority. It would have taken just a few seconds to write an email to me to reject me, and by not doing so, this comment has probably evolved into a big nightmare for them. I didn’t expect it to get this much attention, but yeah; I guess my general sentiment is shared by many.

lgrapenthin 2y ago

Such interview processes are big red flags. The company can't afford taking a risk with you and at the same time tests how desperate you are by making you work for free. They are likely short on cash and short on experience. Expect crunch and bad management. Run.

redwood 2y ago

Did they post the blog publicly?

jejeyyy77 2y ago

your first mistake was doing any kind of take-home exercise at all.

jph 2y ago

IMHO companies should aim for courteous interviews, with faster decisions, and if there's any take home work then it's fully paid. I've seen your work at Beaver.digital and on GetFractals.com. If you're still looking, feel free to contact me; I'm hiring for a startup doing AI/ML data analysis. Specifically Figma + DaisyUI + TypeScript + Python + Pandas + AWS + Postgres.

deleted 2y ago

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