- First stage is a short phone screening with an external HR company. A very brief and general discussion about your experience to verify that you fit the vacancy at all.
- First proper interview stage was very strange. It was scheduled to last 15 minutes, however the interviewers were 5 minutes late, asked 6 long, open questions (like: describe the whole process of introducing a new feature in software). But you don't actually have time to give an answer, they immediately stop you and jump to another question because "we're short on time". It seems they were more interested in ticking-off the questions from the checklist, than hearing an answer. Not sure if this was some kind of hazing or they wanted to check if you don't crumble under the time pressure, or if this was just poor time management on their side. Either way, a huge red flag.
- Next was 2 hours of IQ tests, "supervised" on Zoom by a psychologist from some external company, I guess to make sure you're not cheating, or maybe just observe your reactions. Note: it was not "personality tests" or "cultural fit", but actual batch of run-of-the-mill IQ tests. To spice it up, you have to complete those before the next interview phase, which basically turns into: "you have to do it tomorrow, during working hours". Which is funny considering it took 2 months between submitting the application and receiving the invite for the first interview. That's just my personal opinion, but I consider recruiting people based on their ability to find patterns in random circles and lines as yet another red flag.
- Another step was a 45 minutes written test followed by a 1 hour long interview. Written test was a handful of open questions eg. to describe some process, somewhat related to the position. You get the test sheet via email and you need to send it back within 45 minutes. The interview part was not as hectic as the first one - there were still lots of questions, but this time at the very least, there was time to actually answer them. Questions were rather "general", but related to the position. It was clear that they were more interested in the "process" and in asking all the questions they had prepared, than in actually having a conversation about your skills, experiences and how would you fit in that particular job. Absolutely impersonal, and you could easily replace this whole panel meeting with something like Sonru Interview, where candidate is video-recording answers to a list of questions. It would also make the whole "scheduling" much easier.
- There was no attempt at even touching on the subject of "why I should work for you" - what do they offer, what are the benefits, conditions etc. I can only guess, that they assume working for them is a reward in itself, and nothing else should matter for the candidate.
- Following the trail of red flags: this was an interview for an engineering position, however at no point in the whole process any engineering skills were actually tested, verified or even asked about. Someone who is a good talker could probably handle this interview without having a clue about engineering.
