I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Artist On Go in Jan 2024
Interview
I had three interviews with them.
The first one was with a recruiter and was more like an introductory interview where I had to talk about myself, my professional background, etc.
The second one was with a lead engineer. I had to say the same stuff I said in the first interview, but he also asked about my experience with some tools and technologies.
The third one was the weird one. It was weird from the beginning. The first thing I noticed was that the woman was eating while she was interviewing me. That's not a problem; maybe she was really busy and didn't have time to take a break to eat something. Five min into the meeting, she stops listening to me to chat with someone else. Then she says that she has to take care of an issue and will be back in 20-30 min. So I disconnect the call and wait for her to email me with a new Google Meeting link. 20 min later, the email arrives. She started asking the same stuff I already clarified in the first two interviews; she wanted to know about my educational background and my professional background. Again, I already told everything relevant twice in the first two interviews, and there was no information that I told that could not be found on my resume. Then she starts creating some scenarios where I have a task with a deadline that is coming, but I haven't finished it yet. What would I do in that situation? I tried to explain that I would not let the situation come to that; I would get in touch with my superior a week earlier or so to talk about any issues and difficulties that I have and manage his expectations, so I would not fall into a situation like the one she described. But she kept forcing me into a situation where there were not many options for me; the only two were 'work extra hours' or 'do not work extra hours'. And she made it really clear to me that they don't pay per hour worked. I think she means that I would have to work overtime for free. I tried to explain to her that I would work overtime only if it was absolutely needed, but I don't think she liked my answer; maybe she wanted me to have "an owner mentality" and be "a team player". In the end, I think I didn't match the "culture" of the company.
A few weeks after the meeting, I received an email saying that I would not move on to the next stage. I just answered, "No problem, thanks.".
My feeling was that they were extremely disorganized, or at least the last interviewer was. Was there no one that could take care of the "working emergency" she had? I have never seen an interviewer that had to stop an interview to take care of something; usually they are 100% committed to the interview. The need to repeat the same stuff three times for three distinct interviewers also makes me feel like they have no organization in their hiring process. They should at least share information about the candidate between the stages. But the worst part, definitely, was when she implied that in order for me to be hired, I would have to constantly work overtime (for free). Why constantly? Because if this kind of situation were sporadic, I don't think she would have the need to raise the matter during an interview. In my option, they want to know if the candidate is okay with this type of working environment.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would you do if it's the end of the day on Friday and you haven't finished a task that should be done?
If you've ever worked in the startup space on an advanced technical product/team, don't waste your time here. After telling the CEO about the dozens of products I've build in my 6 years in the DTC commerce space, he said "so you've never actually built anything new". I assume he means I've only ever "iterated" or built features for existing products and visions. Well, if I had built something "new" I'd be the CEO of that product, not working for someone else. After he denied me he tried to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you tell me about some of the products you've built
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Artist On Go (New York, NY) in Mar 2023
Interview
I had a phone screening and then a video call with the CEO. The CEO asked me "why i wasn't good enough" to survive a round of layoffs at a previous company
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
"Why were you not good enough to be kept when [previous company] did layoffs"