I applied in response to an ad in the Django News email newsletter.
The first step was to submit personal information and a letter describing my related technical background current interests.
The page did not collect my resume, but did have adtech that prevented it from being submitted from a browser running common ad block extension.
After using another browser to submit, I received an automated email that included the following:
Application Process
1. Review application and resume
First we determine if we are a good fit, for example if our tech stacks and interests match.
2. Next step: Take a quick code assessment
This step is new to our process and is meant to be a quick assessment before either party invests any more time.
Depending on the skills and position you applied for, you may see questions covering: TypeScript, React, CSS, HTML, Python, Django. We'll be adding Node.js shortly.“
The company skipped step one because they never got my resume and the assessment link arrived instantly.
This “quick” code assessment turned out to be the following:
“Please take the assessment in one go. It should
take 45-60 minutes to complete, depending on
the role. If you're applying for full stack, it may
take longer.”
This was a big ask given I had spoken with no one at the company, but I mistakenly gave them the benefit of the doubt.
The test was a mix of multiple choice and short answer code entry questions. The code “editor” was not competitive with other code test or live coding sites.
For example, tab added two spaces, but their example code used four. Okay I’ll hit tab doubly as much, I suppose.
This small mistake on their part sort of symbolized the sloppy work of Uplift in building this assessment application, and general lack of attention to detail.
What followed was a trip down someone’s leetcode lane:
Many questions required unpacking nested typing annotations with code written purposefully to confuse.
A key aspect of this “assessment” was being able to know the exact syntax of relatively obscure Python in webdev.
For example, the proper use of partial(), which I’ve yet to come across in six years of building with Django.
Another key aspect of this exam is that it instructs you not to use any references while taking it.
If you let the tab lose focus a warning will show implying you are cheating.
However, there are no code hints and you are not given a way to test the compilation of your code. It remained unclear if code syntax was important or factored into how submissions would be “graded.”
About 3/4 through my work, the page showed an error saying that it could not be submitted due to some number of focus seconds. Though, I had not attempting to submit the page.
Fearing I would lose all of my work on something I already knew I did not want, I went to inspect and found the console littered in errors, and another warning about “losing focus” for this transgression.
One of the final questions was to write a Django model for an Employee class. “Finally, something that makes sense to test,” I thought.
But the question was relatively trivial and vague on requirements. I don’t know who writes model definitions syntactically perfect entirely from memory, but that was the request.
I submitted my assessment and got a response within an hour saying:
“Thanks for reaching out about our open position here at Uplift. We appreciate that you took the time to apply and complete the assessment. Unfortunately, based on your results, we have decided not to move forward.
…
We had a lot of very good candidates applying and we have been moving forward with other candidates where we saw a closer match. “
The rest of the text repeated a phrase thanking me for my time repeatedly, and the email had different font styles to indicate the slapdash assembly of their assessment rejection workflow.
I regret not coming to Glassdoor first to read about how badly it also would have been to interview with employees if this firm.
If I had known that, I would have avoided wasting time and giving my personal data to this group.
I’d warn anyone away from applying to this company or any that would screen professionals this way
