The interview itself was a piece of cake, the questions were straightforward and relevant, which I appreciated. However, what stood out to me was the interviewer's attitude. He didn’t seem particularly interested or engaged in what I was saying. There was a lack of warmth or effort to make the conversation feel more comfortable or human. While I understand professionalism is important, creating a welcoming environment can make a big difference in how candidates perform and connect.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about your experiences?
The salary expectation and your availability?
Why us ?
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Friendsurance (Berlin) in July 2024
Interview
The interview process consisted from:
- Initial screening with the Head of Data
- Technical assignment
- Cultural fit interview
I have successfully passed two stages, but during cultural fit was rejected due to not aligned position requirements, overall my impression was positive, communication transparent and clear.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical assignment was fair, data manipulation using PySpark to showcase how you structure/test/document your code. Instructions were clear and handy, no issue during the technical stage was encountered.
Request was to build a pipeline to process bundled insurance contracts and showcase how to aggregate different types of insurance products based on monthly/yearly premium contracts with PySpark.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Friendsurance (Berlin) in Sept 2023
Interview
1. Call with a recruiter, it's ok. 2. Call with 2 Engineering Managers, which turned out to be completely incompetent for this position in my opinion. I described below, why I think they're incompetent.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I don't know if everyone there has this level, but I was interviewed by some absolutely incompetent guys. for example" describe the ways how data transfer can be secured" - I've spent 20 minutes describing different protocols like https/ tls/ mtls/ oauth2/ encription keys/ types, and the interviewer says : "oh, actually it's different - do you know that you can encrypt a hard drive?" OMG, really ? :) and this way the whole tech interview went, the same for management part, when you're asked one thing, you describe how you managed the whole process , and the interviewer goes "well, I wanted to hear how you asked your manager' ... complete facepalm