Recruiter Phone Screen

Code Sample

• Problem on HackerRank/similar. It involved blocking I/O + CPU and some concurrency/async aspects.

Code Sample Review Call

• Chatted with an SRE about the code sample.

Virtual On-Site (5-6 hours)

• 1x behavioral/related to past projects and experience
• 2x code samples
• 1x project discussion (discuss a technical project you were responsible for designing/implementing)
• 1x troubleshooting/debugging
• 1x architecture/design

Throughout the entire process, communication was continually stressed and emphasized at each phase. This is where it ultimately fell apart for me.

After completing the code sample, the follow-up call was scheduled. After that, a week went by with no follow-up. I sent an email to the recruiter but didn't hear back. Apparently, the email went to spam (I don't use Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.; things get lost sometime, OK).

Two weeks after the code sample discussion call, the recruiter finally got back, moving me to the final "on-site" stage. A useful information packet was provided with lots of tips. I emailed the recruiter a couple of questions but never heard back.

The on-site went so-so. I think I probably didn't do well on the troubleshooting (it was largely verbal with some charts—troubleshooting a "production" issue). It wasn't immediately clear their operating model. Maybe it was my fault for not clarifying up-front whether things like SSHing onto production servers were standard.

I think paying close attention to the Dropbox blog probably would have provided some useful hints for the architectural portion.

After the "on-site", I didn't hear back for a week, so I emailed the recruiter. They replied they'd been busy, there had been some holidays, etc., so they were still waiting on feedback—OK.

Another week went by, so I shot out another email. This time, nothing.

Six weeks later, I received an automated rejection email from their recruiting software saying the position had been filled. For stressing communication so much, I was rather disappointed at the untimeliness and lack of feedback.