I applied for the position in August. I received the Hackerrank and HireVue assessments quickly and completed them within a week of receiving them. However, I heard nothing from Goldman for a month and a half, so I assumed I had been rejected. In October, a recruiter from Goldman contacted me, stating that I had been selected for a Superday interview in Jersey City, New Jersey, and that I needed to arrange my plane tickets with their travel agency.

Their travel agency unexpectedly canceled my plane tickets. When I called to ask for an explanation, the agent berated me, yelling multiple questions without letting me answer (DO YOU REALLY NEED A HOTEL? WHY ARE YOU FLYING BACK TO A DIFFERENT AIRPORT?). She continued to yell, stating that I booked the tickets on a Friday and, since the agency wasn't open on Fridays, the tickets couldn't be processed. I was told to rebook online, which I could have done without the agent's yelling and accusations that I was trying to steal money from Goldman Sachs.

Eventually, my tickets were booked. However, less than a week before my Superday, I received an offer from another company that I preferred over Goldman Sachs. I immediately emailed my recruiter that night, informing her that I would not be attending the interview as I was accepting another company's offer, though I was still open to considering Goldman for full-time opportunities. The next day, I received no email from the recruiter, although my plane tickets appeared as canceled.

The following day, my plane reservations reappeared on the respective airlines' mobile apps, indicating that Goldman's travel agency had made another error. I sent another email to my recruiter, reconfirming my interview cancellation and requesting that my plane tickets be canceled again. Her quick response was not to confirm my interview cancellation, but simply to instruct me to call the travel agency—the same one that had already berated me—to cancel my tickets, even though they had originally been canceled.

I called the travel agency and was transferred to another agent who was very pleasant about the situation. When it came to canceling the hotel, she stated it was too late for a refund. I mentioned that I had informed Goldman days in advance that I could not make the interview and was only told to call the travel agency to cancel my flight and hotel after the refund deadline had passed. The travel agent then said that Goldman would cover the cost of the hotel.

In conclusion, I had to deal with a company that took over a month to update me on my application status after I applied and completed a virtual interview and coding challenge. I also encountered an unprofessional travel agency affiliated with Goldman Sachs, which is inexplicably open only four days a week and yelled at me over the phone. Furthermore, the HR department was incompetent, responding slowly to my emails, curt when I asked questions, and whose lack of response when I initially stated I could not attend the interview cost them several hundred dollars, as they instructed me to cancel the hotel only after the refund deadline had passed. In comparison, I had to decline another company's offer after visiting their campus. Their HR was more prompt and polite in responding to my emails, and their travel agent was also very pleasant.

Just because Goldman Sachs is an 'elite' company does not mean they should belittle their applicants and be dismissive toward them. I hope, for their company's sake, that they improve how they treat their employees and applicants in the future.

Easy HackerRank questions involving arrays.

General HireVue questions about your computer science experience and projects, and how you would solve problems.