The first step was an HR phone interview. The HR representative was quite nice. We chatted for more than an hour, and she suggested I consider two roles.

The second step was an online C# programming test. I only spent a quarter of the allotted time and completed it.

What frustrated me was the third round. I thought it would be a face-to-face interview, but Optiver wanted a Skype interview, even though we are in the same city. I couldn't find a quiet room in my company's building, so I had to take a day off for the one-hour interview.

I believe I applied for a C# programmer role. However, the interviewers did not ask me any technical questions about C#. Instead, they spent all the time asking about my current job responsibilities. I believe I answered their questions clearly and emphasized the time requirements and the efforts/solutions I made to satisfy these requirements.

But I received the following feedback:

"(He) was a strong communicator and was able to clearly describe the solution he had developed. Good knowledge around pricing algorithms. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to articulate the business drivers behind the solution he developed. He did not seem to understand the full business intent, and his solution was to automate an inefficient business process without questioning the process."

The feedback shocked me.

First, I did emphasize that my current project is to automate the business process and that time requirements are critical. How could the interviewers say I don't understand the full business intent? As a developer with over 15 years of experience and one year of deep involvement in this project, how could I have carried out my work without knowing the destination I was targeting?

Second, I am a developer applying for a senior software developer role. I understand that in a waterfall software development model, requirement analysis is important, and developers must cooperate closely with BAs at this stage. However, BAs, rather than developers, should focus more on this analysis and document the business intents and drivers. If Optiver truly wanted a BA, they should have stated this clearly from the outset.

Moreover, when I took over my current project, it had been ongoing for three years. In other words, the requirement analysis phase had already passed. I really don't understand why the interviewers were entangled in business intents instead of challenging me on solution design and/or technical details.

Anyway, this is their decision. The lesson I learned from the interview process is that they actually didn't care about the candidate's programming capability, although they claimed to be looking for a good software programmer.

What are you doing in your current role?

What is the time requirement?

How do you achieve the time requirement?

How to find the cause of an internet communication failure?