In mid-March, I applied for a Senior Software Development position. The recruiter reached out a few days later and, due to scheduling conflicts on both sides, we agreed to meet with the hiring manager (HM) in mid-April. I indicated openness to exploring other opportunities within the company and agreed to coffee interviews with other hiring managers at New Relic in the interim. Great so far.

A coffee interview was scheduled; when I arrived, I found that it was for a Site Reliability Engineer role - an internal operations team where fluency in Go/Python/Ruby is required. It was not communicated in advance. While I do have exposure to all of those languages, I would not consider myself "fluent" in any of them.

The HM explained the position and then jumped right in:

Q: "Do you work during lunch?" A: "I work as long as I need to meet the team commitments."

His response: "At New Relic, the expectation is that no one works during lunch."

Q: "How often do you take your work home?" A: "Depends - when I'm in learning mode, I tend to work outside of traditional hours in order to get up to speed and be an effective contributor."

His response: "Then you're taking away opportunities from your teammates and preventing their growth."

After some more questions (none about my current/previous roles, background, etc.), he stated that he wasn't sure that there was a fit.

So, I was surprised when he asked me to complete a coding challenge within the next couple of days. I was heading out of the country for two weeks; it was impractical for me to complete this during my trip. He assured me that I should only spend 45 minutes. He just wanted to know that I could code; it didn't have to be perfect, and he understood my time constraints. I told him I would reach back out to him by end of day and let him know if I could fit it in my schedule, but completing it after returning from vacation would be preferred.

Within 5 minutes of leaving the meeting, the coding challenge was sitting in my inbox. Given that I had seen the problem statement, I felt obligated to complete the challenge (regardless of my other commitments). I juggled my commitments around to make it happen within the time box given. I should note that the challenge was very ambiguous, requiring me to make numerous assumptions, so I spent a fair amount of time documenting the various tradeoffs for the solution, given the time box guidance I received. I sent a .NET-based solution and the tradeoffs/considerations back to the hiring manager.

I did not hear any feedback until over a month later (now, May), when the Site Reliability HM asked me to retake the challenge in a different programming language (fixed to one of Go, Python, or Ruby). The original challenge said I was free to choose a language, and the recruiter had previously indicated that I may be asked to complete the same challenge in a different language depending on which team I was interviewing with, so I asked for clarification from both the recruiter and the HM: a) would I have to complete the same challenge in Java (since that was the focus language for the roles that I applied for), and b) could we talk on the phone regarding tradeoffs/considerations for the existing solution?

The HM's response was that my original solution was mediocre, in part because I didn't use a Java ArrayDeque in my .NET solution and because I didn't use a Trie. Given the time constraints and requirements, I specifically noted in my tradeoffs/considerations message that I chose speed over space... so while I did not specifically mention "Trie", I feel I clearly demonstrated being mindful of the space requirements of my solution.

The HM did have some valid feedback, although given the 45-minute time limit, I felt that I met the requirements laid out, as well as addressed some of his concerns in my "design considerations" response.

I copied the recruiter on every email message, and the recruiter has been completely MIA. The last time I heard back from anyone at New Relic was on May 8th (today: May 23rd). As far as I know, I'm still being considered for the "Site Reliability Engineer" role. Meanwhile, the position that I originally applied for is being advertised on LinkedIn. I've tried reaching out to that HM directly on LinkedIn, with no response.

So here's where I'm at. I'm stuck in a bucket for a position that I didn't apply for. I've tried calling and emailing the recruiter and have not heard any response for a little over 3 weeks. I've been unable to get in contact with the HM for the position that I applied for via LinkedIn. I have not been formally excluded from the Site Reliability Engineering position, either.

I know several former colleagues who work here and they love the company. I currently use several of New Relic's tools in my current role and remain enthusiastic about the products that the company provides.

My interview experience, however, has been extremely disappointing.