I met with one of the recruiters from their recruiting team at a career fair. I was promised feedback by the following week, however, I received no communication until the week after that.

During this waiting period, the recruiter was unresponsive. Consequently, I tried connecting with other recruiters for a second opinion. I only did so because they stated they would call regardless of whether I was shortlisted or not.

About a week later, I received a phone call from the recruiter for a phone interview. This call occurred without any prior notice, as I was having lunch at the time. I was also indirectly reprimanded for inquiring about my application progress with other recruiters I had met that day.

The recruiter mentioned that a reschedule was possible, but it would be pushed back by weeks or even months.

After the phone screening, I was arranged for a technical interview with a currently employed engineer. The questions were appropriate, and the interviewer was generally friendly, welcoming questions and providing guidance throughout the interview.

I was then scheduled for a cultural fit interview the following week. I asked the recruiter if a meeting link would be provided, as she had set up the link for the previous interview. She responded, stating that my interviewer was on leave and that my interview would have to be postponed by a week. This notification was sent the night before the scheduled interview, which was set for the next morning.

The interview was labeled as a cultural fit interview, but I was tested on JavaScript for its entirety. I received the rejection outcome a month after my final interview. During this month-long period, I repeatedly asked my recruiter for the result, but she remained unresponsive. I contacted her periodically.

Overall, this was one of the worst candidate experiences I have had. The recruiter's responsiveness only when she required something from me felt disrespectful. At other times, messages were simply read and seen.

The acknowledgement of the interview postponement was also due to my effort in sending a reminder the night before. She justified this by stating the interviewer was unavailable on the agreed date, a fact she conveyed the night before the interview, when my session was scheduled for the following morning.

I suppose I was unfortunate to have such a disappointing experience, especially when others have shared nothing but positive feedback about their recruiting process with Grab MY. Another peer of mine, interviewed for the same position in a different department at the same time, was handled by the same recruiter. He had nothing but good things to say about the recruiter's responsiveness and prompt actions.

While I may not have been valued as highly by the recruiting team as others, I hope for greater professionalism from the team in the future. I also hope the purpose of each interview is clearly understood by both the interviewee and interviewer. If a candidate is to be technically assessed, they should ideally be informed beforehand. If it's a cultural fit interview, this fact should be understood by both parties, and the interview should adhere to the planned agenda.

I was fortunate to have my laptop with me during the cultural fit interview. I cannot imagine the stress on another candidate if their available device for a supposed cultural fit interview, which turned out to be technical, was just a mobile phone or tablet.

All in all, I hope other candidates are treated more fairly, or at least more professionally than I was. This experience has made me uncertain about pursuing a software engineering career at Grab in the future and whether I can recommend it to others.

Your experience may differ; perhaps I was just extremely unlucky.

1st Technical Interview: LeetCode medium question.

2nd Technical Interview (Cultural Fit Round): Implementing JavaScript classes with JavaScript event listeners.