I interviewed recently and was told that there would be a people management interview, followed by a number of technical/system design interviews. It was a 45-minute conversation focused on situational-type questions and questions about what type of leader you are, how you motivate a team, etc.

I came away from the call feeling that it went relatively well. I was able to provide examples of times where I had to manage the types of situations they asked about and offered my view on a number of questions they had asked (keeping the STAR method in mind).

However, I received an email from a noreply email address the following day stating they wouldn't be proceeding with my application.

While I did expect it would be a difficult interview process overall, as I understand they cast a "wide net" to get the best candidate for a role, I had honestly expected to at least be given the chance to proceed further in the process and demonstrate my technical knowledge after the people management conversation.

I had asked beforehand if it would be a competency-based interview and was told to just read up on the company's mission and values to understand the type of company they are. I emailed afterwards for some feedback as I would be interested in understanding what was lacking so that I could improve for future conversations, but heard nothing back.

Overall, it was disappointing as I still genuinely think this would be a really interesting company to work for and would at least have liked to have had the opportunity to try to demonstrate why I felt I would have been a good fit for the company and the role.

How do you motivate your team?

Tell me about a time when you had to manage an underperforming team member.