This interview experience has been very interesting, took a TON of time, and didn't end up the way I was hoping. It last for almost 2 months.
I really appreciated the recruiter and even the hiring manager as they were very communicative, and transparent throughout the process, but it is a super long process, and high expectations for things that you aren't paid to do.
This was my experience:
1. Recruiter reach out for phone screen lasting 30 mins
2. Zoom call with hiring manager lasting 45 mins
3. 3 Interviews with team members via zoom lasting 45 mins each
4. Case Study presentation - 40 minutes to present and 20 minutes of Q&A
5. Decision made (communicated very clearly with recruiter)
All in all, I 100% enjoyed the interviews with the team. I really felt an amazing vibe, and thought I fit beyond well culturally as each conversation was smooth, effortless, and not awkward at all.
The issue I had was with the Case Study presentation. The instructions were SUPER detailed, and asked for a ton of different things including how you got to your solutions, in a very detailed manner. I spent probably upwards of 30+ hours working on this because I really wanted this role, and used a different platform for the presentation including videos, sample documents, and more. I wrote everything out on piles of paper to make sure I didn't miss any of the details as well that were being asked of me. I practiced for about 3 hours total, and got my presentation to about 45 minutes which would leave about 15 minutes for Q&A (in the instructions they said you have 1 hour to present but I tried to leave time for the Q&A).
When it came time for the presentation, they only gave me 40 minutes to present, so I had to zoom through the end of it, which left me a bit frazzled. They also asked me questions solely about my solutions, and extremely detailed questions that I got stumped on which I was very bummed out about. If I had these questions ahead of time, I could've prepared better answers and thought through the details of those questions more rather than stumbling here.
When it came down to it, I was turned down because of the solutions I gave for the problems. In my opinion, if this happens to you, don't bother spending any of your time focusing on how you arrived to your solutions in detail like what was asked. Focus on the solutions solely and go as detailed as you can with it, and think about all of the nuances to your solutions so you can address them in the Q&A.
I wasn't paid or compensated in any way for the amount of time I spent working on this project, and the details they asked for were so detailed you won't be able to cover it in 40 minutes if you focused on everything that was asked.
They did at least let me know of their decision in a timely manner which I appreciated so I could move on to other opportunities. I did turn down an offer that was given to me during this process because I really wanted to finish it out with Twilio, and thought I had a great change to get this role. You are definitely not a shoe in if you make it to the end, so keep that in mind when investing your time in this process.
