I applied online.

My interaction with Pennylane began positively with a productive chat led by their recruiter. However, as the interview process unfolded, I encountered some hurdles worth discussing. The first challenge came with the at-home project assignment. Unfortunately, the instructions provided were quite basic, with only two lines of description, leaving a lot open to interpretation. This made it tricky to figure out exactly what they wanted. Additionally, they said the project would take about four hours, but it ended up being much more time-consuming, especially for those of us who already have full-time jobs.

During the follow-up debrief interview, I was surprised to find out that the person interviewing me was in charge of mobile development, even though I had applied for a senior web developer position. This mismatch made things a bit confusing. One major issue was the difference between what the project emphasized and what the interview focused on. The project seemed to prioritize technical aspects, like setting up databases and high-performing optimal queries. But in the interview, they mainly cared about the UI/UX of the project, probably because of the interviewer's background. This felt like a disconnect, as the technical work I put in wasn't given enough attention.

Looking back, I see some inconsistencies in the way Pennylane conducts their interviews. The lack of clarity in project instructions, mismatched interviewers, and differing evaluation criteria highlight areas for improvement in their hiring process. As someone committed to professionalism and growth, I hope Pennylane takes steps to make their recruitment process more consistent and transparent for future candidates.

How do you prevent N+1 queries?