After applying I received an email that they reviewed my application and decided to move forward. According to them the next steps would be: - Complete a 60-minute work simulation. - 30-minute phone interview with the team lead. - 45-60 minute phone interviews with 3 engineers (peers) with whom you will regularly interact at PacketFabric. - Reference check. I did the work simulation they sent to me in Python. The first task was to simulate a scenario where a bug is happening when the customer is trying to create an account, but you have limited access to database and the code. They are interested in how you manage to find the problem, but also how you communicate to your team, mainly the support channel and direct them with instructions on what the customer can do about the problem and also with other engineer about fixing the issue. The second task is about implementing a code, something about calculating a subscription price for a customer, based on some business rules they give you. You have 1 hour to solve both tasks. I did very well in both tasks despite of the time pressure. In fact, they gave me a very nice detailed feedback later on my performance, pinpoint several bullets that they liked about my solution to both tasks. In the second task, my solution passed about 80 percent of the tests. The 20percent that did not pass were edgy cases that I just couldn't think about it due to the time limit. But overall, the feedback was very positive and they said I'd be hearing from the hiring team within a few days. Few days later I got an email from them and the title says: Next step on your PacketFabric application! Here I go very excited to open the email just to read, to my surprise: 'After reviewing your CV and experience, we've made the decision to not move forward at this time.' I was genuinely pissed. First of all, do not write 'Next step' on the subject if there is no next step. Now, here is my 2 cents on this: In my opinion they do not send the coding tests based on a filtering they do on your CV, they send this test to everyone who applies for the position and then from there they start doing the selection. Don't do that. Dontt waste people's time with a test if they are already disqualified based on experience and the CV. They already spent their time writing a CV and a cover letter customized to your company. You claim that you hire the top talents for your company. No you don't. The companies that have top people are top companies themselves. Your hiring system is dumb to say the least. Maybe there were other candidates that did as well as me in the coding test, but their CV looked more attractive? I find that hard to believe, but if that's the case, what's the importance of the step of talking to the team leader and the step of talking to the other engineers? So you are literally discarding candidates that performed well and are a potential good employees to your company without even talking to them?

It all started out quite well, with a very interesting coding exercise that focused on real-world scenarios rather than on abstract algorithms/whiteboarding problem-solving. The exercise was handled by Woven which did a very good job communicating with me. It consisted of two scenarios that were meant to simulate the actual work environment at the company. It was quite fun and entertaining, despite the time limit. I completed both scenarios successfully and two days later Woven replied with an analysis of the solution, which was positive. Then, I received another email from PacketFabric titled "Next step on your PacketFabric application!". It started with the following paragraph: "Thanks for working through our Software Engineering scenarios! We were very impressed with your responses and would love to move forward." As you might imagine, after reading this, I was quite excited! The next step was a call with one of the team leads, and I promptly scheduled it. As far as I can tell and as my perception goes, the call went well. He gave me some time to ask questions, I asked about the company and how the typical workday looked like. He asked me about my previous experience and I gladly told him, besides describing some interesting projects that I worked on. I also told them that, although I wasn't actively using the stack they were using at the time, I used a similar library and that I *did* use it in the past, and besides, the skills were transferrable, which the developer agreed. He seemed to be impressed and he even said "I really enjoyed speaking to you, x. Talk soon". The developer told me he wanted to make the interview process as painless as possible to me and that I'd get an email with the next step - which was supposed to be a call with three more people (at the same time, I guess) and the final step before hiring, I suppose - within one or two days. 5 days passed and nobody got back to me. At first, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited a bit more, I didn't think they'd just leave me hanging, but this seemed to be the case. I finally decided to email the developer and ask about the next steps. An hour later, I received a reply saying they decided "not to go ahead with my application at this time". What really disappointed me, is that the message had *ZERO* feedback on WHY they decided not to go ahead, nothing, NADA, just a short cold "#nothnxbye". As far as I could tell, the whole process was going well. I actually stopped applying to other companies thinking I had a good chance of getting this role after the 1st interview (which was more than halfway through the process as they describe it). The problem is not being rejected. That's part of it. But I'd expect at least a feedback on why they decided to not go ahead with me. I think companies that treat the rejected candidates as disposable and offer no feedback whatsoever don't deserve to have talented people working for them. This goes to show also how they might treat employees that end up working for them. This culture should change and more respect should be shown for the people that took their time to apply, go through the challenge and interviews. The way they're doing now shows a total lack of respect for rejected candidates. In the end, they just kept me hanging with false hopes and wasted my time.

This position was for a front-end leaning full-stack developer. The job description states "Extensive experience with Python and PHP in large applications developed in a team environment. Experience with Vue.js, Angular and/or AngularJS." I have experience in Python and Vue. I'll explain below, but overall this was a huge waste of time for me as a candidate, I do not recommend it. You are immediately sent an email by a third-party company called Woven that states "PacketFabric has reviewed your application and decided to move forward." They ask you to complete a coding assessment. Very impersonal and clearly no one reviewed the application. I am apprehensive about spending time doing coding assessments that are clearly automated as they tend to be a waste of time if they end up not liking your resume, so I reached out to Woven. Working with Woven was good, they said "PacketFabric is working with us because they want everyone to get a chance to show their skills, not just rely on a resume to get noticed. We help candidates who might be screened out in a traditional process get the chance at progressing further along in the interview process" when I expressed my concerns. Okay, so I completed the Woven assessment. The coding assessment itself was not bad. It contained two real-world scenarios. The first was debugging a JavaScript error based on a request to the server and communicating that to a team member and client. The second is an incremental exercise to pull in data, convert it to a real API call, then filter that data, and do some basic error handling. Woven reviews your submission and provides real feedback on what you did well or what things others may have done better. I actually thought this part was one of the better online coding assessments I have taken. Woven passed this along to PacketFabric and they reached out for a screening call. It was with one of their developers who seemed quite unprepared and stumbled through the questions. It was a basic recruitment screening call about your experience. When talking about my experience in VUE (which is listed FIRST in the job ad), he states "oh, we use Angular" but he was able to recognize that knowing about other front-end frameworks could have transferable skills, which I agreed with. Beyond that, there were not too many questions on what technologies I had experience with. A few days later, I got the rejection stating that they are looking to fill a role with technologies that I don't have a lot of experience with right now. My advice to PacketFabric: - Don't list Python and Vue if you are looking for PHP/Angular candidates. - Review resumes before sending a coding assessment. - Review resumes before sending an invite for a call.