Before I start this, I want to explain that this position was sold to me as management only: "if you can code, that’s great, but it’s more growing the team and strategy." My background was running a web startup, so I can code, but I haven’t done so in years. I made this pretty clear all the way through.

First call was pretty standard. I had a 30-minute phone screen with a technical recruiter to start, which went quite well. We covered the company and how they operate; I didn’t get a chance to sell myself as they wanted to talk about the role.

Next up was a 45-minute Skype call with another manager based in the US, which was pretty general and didn’t cover anything in major detail either, although we had a great chat about data algorithms.

After passing this, it was the 4-hour-long interviews.

First one was OK and covered how I would look at the task of placing adverts on websites in as much detail as possible, how to cover fraudulent clicks, technology used, managing ad placement dependent on location, etc.

The second was a bit more difficult, and it was a pure code test. Did I mention I’m not a developer?

They didn’t progress my application after that.