I had 3 different steps of interviews.

1. Human Resources interview and discussion about the company culture and ways of working. From this step, it was obvious that there is an extremely demanding workplace where they try to push you to your limits by micromanagement tactics like making you feel special and unique, when in fact you are just an average engineer. It is clear from this step that they are searching for workaholics. There is already a mention of overtimes that might occur, and it is quite vague how frequent they occur. The interviewer asked me about salary, and when I asked for something really logical and average, the interviewer tried to talk "unofficially" and as a friend, suggesting I ask for something insanely low while promising that the ladder would be really quick/solid/clear for me. In addition, the interviewer presented other benefits of the company like a mobile phone and car. For me, as a car and a mobile phone owner, I do not need such products, but more money to pay my bills. I think that giving low salaries and assets like cars and mobile phones is a policy so that employees cannot leave the company, scared to lose the car and being unable to buy one on their own.

2. I had an offline test which I had to submit in 1-2 days. It was quite easy for the domains that I am interested in and have experience with. However, there were parts of the test that were totally new to me, and I had to improvise.

3. The third step for me was a technical discussion with 2 interviewers, one mid/senior and one higher-level engineer/manager, who seemed a little bit abstract and unaware of low-level technical aspects of the software engineering domain. At this step, apart from the overtimes, it was mentioned that weekend work needs might arise, as "deployments cannot occur on weekdays because potential downtime on weekdays would cost a lot for our clients." Again, the frequency of the working weekends was vague. The technical discussion itself was quite easy for me. Nothing extreme - only a logical/simple mix of technical knowledge and critical thinking in the form of discussion.

4. After having positive feedback from all the previous steps, again trying to make me feel special and unique, they scheduled for me a meeting with some high-level line manager. He was quite strict, trying to look professional. He was there to confirm that I was a workaholic, once again mentioning all the overtimes and the work on weekends. But on top, there was one more thing to reveal. There are job trips, again quite vague how frequent they are. Only a mention that in the past, the trips to the clients' site were quite often, like once a week, but at the present time, it was not that much.

The whole process in my eyes:

• Are you workaholic?
• An average technical discussion

Keep in mind that all the interviews were after business hours, meaning that the interviewers were doing overtimes!

One thing they asked me was if I am okay traveling for work, and working on weekends and overtime.