I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Firstup in Oct 2017
Interview
My first interview was a phone interview with Chris, who is absolutely a super cool guy and very easy to talk to. We talked about my resume and experience. That interview went well and I was moved onto the next stage. I was given a couple of super easy timed coding challenges to complete at home. They were happy with my my responses so I moved on. The next stage was more technical questions with a paired coding challenging (DREAD!). I felt like I answered the technical questions reasonably well but totally botched the coding challenge as I tend to do. They're just not easy for me right now. On a side note, I really feel these types of interviews are horribly ineffective as they weed out really good candidates who might not excel in that situation, such as myself obviously. I did my best with the challenge, but unfortunately, nerves and anxiety got the best of me and I received the good old rejection email a couple of hours later with a request for feedback.
I will give them this: they actually contacted me to let me know that I didn't get the position, which is more than I can say about most companies out there who are more than happy to ghost you and leave you hanging. So, kudos in that respect. All I can say to them at this point is, I really hope the person they end up with is a rock star because I know I would've totally killed the position. I have with every position I've ever taken on. They lost a good candidate with a lot of passion, knowledge, and experience over a coding challenge despite my having a 10+ years, a Masters degree, and countless references who can vouch for my work ethic. I was gracious about not getting the position because I know that the company that hires me is going to be the one that deserves me. Their loss.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
The coding challenge was to build a program in Javascript that determines the best poker hand a player has given 5 cards
Thanks for the feedback, our process is constantly evolving and there's no "perfect" way to interview so we try to engage the most realistic way we can. We have a highly collaborative team so we like to see how people work together to solve problems. We do strive for a positive candidate experience regardless of outcome and keep the door open for opportunities in the future as we grow.