I applied online. The process took 3 weeks.

The process was as described in the ad. The first interview was with one of the engineers about my CV and experience, along with questions about the technical challenge in the application. Then there was a development test where they give you a starter project with sloppy code. You are supposed to employ 4 hours to deliver something shippable and thus give priorities accordingly. They’ll want to see pragmatic choices. There is then a 30-minute discussion on the project with another engineer. The engineer gave me very positive feedback and later went as far as saying it was the best test project they had seen in their time there.

A couple of days later I got an email inviting me for the final interview rounds, only to receive a second email a few hours later where it was said there was a mistake and that my application wouldn’t be taken forward because I didn’t show enough knowledge of Swift and so I was not a good fit at this stage, but they suggested I apply again in the future with more experience behind. I had the chance to get in touch with my interviewer to get more feedback, which was nice, and we discussed the negative parts they put in their interview note to HR. They said they gave the OK for me to be put forward for the Level II role and that further questions about the tests would have been discussed in the following interview, and that for them I definitely passed this stage of the process.

However, apparently due to bad communication in the company, HR put me forward and then, since they were only looking for Level III engineers, rejected me. I am really still not sure what happened, to be honest. It seems a bit of a joke at my expense. I also felt it was quite disrespectful to be told I did not have enough knowledge to fit the bill when it was not true according to the interviewer. If I didn’t talk with the interviewer after the rejection email, this experience would definitely have hurt my self-esteem. This is particularly bad considering I am a woman, and seeing the lack of women in engineering, women should be encouraged to trust their abilities when it’s recognised they have them. A disappointing experience overall. Interviewers were kind and respectful during the interviews, and all email exchanges and feedback were quite fast on the positive side.

The questions that you needed to reply to in the take-home test were the focus of the discussion at the review.