I applied online to the backend engineer job Ramp just posted. Hilariously, they require a cover letter because they will definitely read it carefully, along with your résumé that they will read lovingly as well. Their application had a retro feel with its request for answers to some college-application-esque prompts:

• "Expound upon your great achievements." Since those milestones will tell them who will be successful in their company.
• "How are you an entrepreneur?" Well, we are all our own tiny, individual startups now, post-the-Big-Layoff, just roughing it out here in this capitalist hellscape. But Ramp wants more than the pat Hunger Games pabulum from their employees. They are looking for more than Great Engineers at Ramp, folks. They want tiny CEOs at each desk! Ownership!

(At least the desks can be remote ones, for now, anyway). Fine. Hoops. Got it. Too many applications. Got it. Speedbumps.

But then, I received an immediate, automated response to complete a Code Signal OA. Fine again.

I then read the interview comments here on Glassdoor (to see if I should bother) and discovered that all of this jazz is their usual interview practice and that multiple candidates who submitted OAs with 100% correct answers and tests passed were then rejected with alacrity (automated?). I decided I would not complete the OA at all, as they only gave me 72 hours to respond, so I could not fit it into my schedule in the very next 72 hours.

Well, I have to hand it to them for jacking up their interview automation velocity from what already seemed unimprovable, according to Glassdoor reviews.

Comrades, they rejected me the next day. You know, the day after they sent me the OA that I decided to pass on and thus had no interaction with.

If you have time to kill, definitely apply to Ramp. It’s a sobering glimpse into Where We Are Right Now.

In what ways are you entrepreneurial?