The coding interview went great. It was very easy, and the interviewer asked 20 to 30 questions at the end. It was a very nice interview experience.

However, I was another victim of the "Life Story" interview.

My background includes 30 years as a professional software developer working remotely. I've worked on several e-commerce platforms similar to Shopify, with 12 years of experience in Ruby on Rails and 8 years in React. I've led several mission-critical applications that required perfect functionality to prevent company failure. Additionally, I co-owned a small, struggling retail business for 20 years.

I discussed a wide variety of unique professional experiences, which involved topics such as AP Calculus, university adoption tendencies, the evolution of user interfaces and my adaptation to them, government funding cycles, the fastest computers in the world, stock market crashes, 9/11, passion projects, and contributions to GitHub and open-source software development using several programming languages.

My young interviewer had only 4 months of experience as a recruiter at Shopify. Before that, they spent a year as a manager at a CrossFit gym and a year in the food service industry.

They insisted at the beginning of the interview that we only discuss my professional career track, making no personal connection or offering feedback. The interview concluded with, "... if you make it to the next interview and if I and the team decide to go ahead with the application."

How many other businesses pick people essentially off the street to decide which professionals they hire? Who shows such contempt for their technical staff?

Is this how Shopify chooses the people building software for their subscribers, for whom Shopify professes to care – subscribers who rely on Shopify's software for their livelihoods?

Describe your professional background to me.