1. I came across a job posting for a remote position with Willing in January, 2018. To apply, I had to complete a coding quiz which consisted mostly of HTML, CSS and JavaScript questions.
2. The CTO then reached out to me and I had a phone interview with him.
3. He asked me to complete a take-home software project exercise which I did.
4. This was followed by a phone interview with the company's CEO.
5. Weeks passed with no word from Willing, so I finally reached out to them; they told me I was no longer under consideration because they changed their mind about a remote hire and were looking for someone local to Miami (I live in NYC).
6. In May, 2018, the CEO reached out to me saying that they were now considering remote hires and asked whether I was still interested in working with them.
7. I was then put in touch with one of their engineers who interviewed me twice; first non-technical, then technical.
8. I was then asked to meet in person with one of the company's key members when he was in NYC. We had a conversation which concluded with him asking me whether I'd be ready to start the following week. (I don't remember his exact words, but it seemed very clear to me that the interview process was behind me.)
9. I showed up in Miami the following week, was introduced to the team and started getting my laptop set up. I naively asked whether I'd be getting a company email address, and that's when I found out that rather than starting to work, I was still on trial and the purpose of my trip was to further test my skills and see whether I was a fit for the team.
I was taken aback to put it mildly but plunged into the task they assigned to me. Their programming language, web framework and front-end framework were all new and unfamiliar to me plus I was sitting in a tiny room with the rest of the engineers - all factors which work against me.
After about 10 hours of work over the course of two days, I completed the task they had given me. I was then told that my skills were not a fit for a company as dynamic as theirs.
No one bothered apologizing for the very unprofessional and humiliating miscommunication on their part.
On my second day, another candidate joined us and started working alongside me on the very same task. He was more familiar with their stack, and maybe not as bothered by the adverse conditions as me, and maybe just brighter than me, but it was hardly encouraging to be sitting with someone who was clearly outperforming me.