I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Plume Design (Palo Alto, CA)
Interview
~5 1-hour interviews, some technical, some high level business context and career goal discussions.
At the beginning of the interview I said I wanted feedback even if they didn't give me an offer, and the recruiter responded positively to that question. I got rejected for not being a "technical match." I responded specifically asking for feedback and was ignored.
Pros:
- Good location (cal ave).
- Some of the upper level management people I spoke with were thoughtful, good communicators.
- They appear they have a good business model -- most of their revenue is coming from integrations with ISPs, not retail sales of plume pods. In terms of partnerships and entering the market in that way, they appear to be ahead of the pack.
Cons:
- No feedback given, even though I was given the impression they were open to providing feedback.
- Slow to get back to me. At the interview, they said they usually render a decision in a couple of days. Five days later I ask for an update only to be told they will get back to me that afternoon, which they did not. Several days after that, I get a rejection email. I ask for feedback. Recruiter ignores me.
- Spartan office interior. Probably common for a startup, but still a minor concern.
- Poor ventilation. The small room I was in was extremely stuffy by the end of 4-5 hours.
- Dirty in places. I went to adjust the height of my office chair and the handle felt sticky. Old coffee stain/spill on the base of the chair.
- Some of the engineers I interviewed with could improve upon communication.
With each interviewer, I asked if I got what they were looking for, and generally it sounded like I got the right answer, or at least one that worked. Perhaps I just wasn't fast enough in providing my answers. Ultimately, I didn't feel like I bombed any one question, so without any feedback, I can only guess at where I came up short.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Given a sorted array which may contain both positive, zeros, and/or negative integers, select the 3 that gives the greatest (most positive) product.
Given a timeseries dataset with the following columns: device_type, timestamp, number_of_requests.
Find a the minute in which the next 60 minutes sum up to the greatest total for each type of device.
The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Plume Design (Palo Alto, CA) in Aug 2018
Interview
The whole process takes about 3 weeks. The process is smooth and the experience is awesome. The Director of Staffing is best of the best. I was a little nervous when the interview got started, but he made me felt much better by giving a few tips that helped me succeed in the interview. I really appreciate what he has done to help the job candidates.
The interview process at Plume Design for role of Data engineer was smooth and well coordinated. The recruiter called first, followed by hiring manager and the onsite at their location