Not the worst interview process I was involved in, but definitely with some weird aspects.
The process consisted of several parts:
- 30 min recruiter call
- 45 min high-level discussion of my experience with 2 engineers, nothing too deep
- 1.5 h live-coding, new feature implementation in an Android app with small architectural discussions. They messed up with giving me access to the code project template in advance, so instead of 1 hour I had at most 20 minutes to prepare everything for the inteview
- 45 min discussion about my experience and work approaches with two EMs and a team lead (?)
I passed all the stages before the last one spectacularly (or so I was told :D), but the last one was weird. I was a bit uncomfortable—I believe 3 interviewers is a bit too much. Besides the hiring manager (who might become my EM), there was another manager, plus some kind of tech/team lead. It was unclear who was leading the interview; it felt more like a cross-examination by two managers, and I had trouble communicating with the manager from another team. It seemed like they did not listen to me. Just one example of communication:
"Do you have experience mentoring less experienced engineers?"
"Well, in my current company, we don't hire junior devs, but in my previous role I mentored a couple of junior developers."
"So, are you saying you don't really have experience in mentoring others?"
I don't know if that's a language barrier (most of the interviewers throughout the process had quite heavy accents), prejudice, or something else—but I was rejected after this last stage.
The rejection itself is some kind of a joke. The recruiter scheduled a call with me a couple of days after the last interview just to say that the feedback was negative, but they were going to discuss my candidacy once again. And then, after a couple more days, they scheduled another call just to say that, unfortunately, it's still a "no." I am quite sure at least one of the calls could've just been an email. And I don't understand the need to give hope that their decision may change. Just don't say anything—say you need two more days to evaluate me and give the final feedback. But maybe it's just me.