The entire process took more than 2 months.

1st stage interview was a very standard 60-minute call with a Technology Director. It started with the interviewer giving their introduction and information about the role. Then it was my turn to introduce myself. As I described my experience around migration, the interview went into deep-dive questions about what exactly I did. For each experience, I gave specific examples of the challenges we faced and how I overcame them. There were specific questions on the wealth domain related to migration and my role in running the migration, and interactions with third parties and various teams (Applications, Infra, and Business).

The interviewer thought I had a gap in understanding wealth products and asked me that as a direct question. I answered with a detailed example using the STAR methodology of a project I had done, which helped me explain that I had in-depth knowledge of the subject.

2nd stage was a Written exercise and case study interview. I reached out to the HR calling them 9 times and emailing them 7 times as I wanted to understand the structure of the interview and the line of questions. However, they never picked up my call or responded to my email.

I was given a 60-minute written exercise that I had to complete a day before the interview. It was a standard 14-page document, and I was asked to write a 1000-word summary to the senior stakeholders about my understanding of the project.

Then I was given a case study presentation that was to be completed 60 minutes before the interview. That was to be followed by a 45-minute interview. The interview started with 5 minutes for introductions, 11 minutes of me giving the presentation, and another 10 minutes for the interviewer. Then the interviewer spent another 7 minutes on questions from my presentation. After that, the interviewer barely spent 5 minutes questioning me about my experience and role-related questions.

After waiting for 3 weeks, I was given feedback that they did not want to proceed with my profile, as the interview felt I lacked skills to manage senior stakeholders, lacked strategy for migration, and data reconciliation.

I was shocked and appalled by the feedback and gave my feedback to the recruiter. Firstly, this was a case study interview, and for that reason, I was contacting them to clarify the structure and line of interview questions. Secondly, the interviewer barely spent 7 minutes on my experience and role-related questions. On the 34th minute of the interview, it ended as he had no more questions. He was checking his watch as if he had run for another meeting. There were not in-depth competency-based questions like in the 1st stage.

It seems they either already had a candidate to hire and this was just a formality, or they did not want to hire for the role as the client did not progress with the contract.

It is frustrating when you find a perfect role that you can give your soul and energy to, but these organizations just play God.

My recommendation for anybody going for a second-stage case study/written exercise is not to focus too much on the content and focus on how you can show the best skills you have to fulfill the role.

1st stage: In-depth line of questions on experience, your exact role, and a few questions on domain knowledge like wealth products. How was migration done?

2nd stage: Introduction. Give a 10-minute presentation. Questions on experience, migration strategy, and data reconciliation methodology.