The first interview was a phone screen with HR. They asked about my experience and gave a brief description of the roles they were looking to fill.

The follow-up interview was a Skype call with the same HR representative to discuss my "Life Story." This was an unusual approach to interviewing a candidate. While I appreciated the representative's explanation that this prevents "B.S." answers to stock questions, it was difficult to sum up one's life in 15 to 30 minutes without much indication from the representative if they were hearing relevant information (nor much indication regarding what counted as "relevant"). The process was pleasant but tricky to navigate.

My general sense from this experience was that the answers didn't matter much as long as the representative liked me and my career path (i.e., "life story"?) somewhat matched the position's description. However, this is only my guess. It was a deeply opaque approach to interviewing, an undertaking which is already inscrutable for the most part.

The interviews were for a technical role, but they did not involve any technical discussions besides the listing of technologies used (little more than buzzwords). I was disappointed not to have been able to talk shop with developers or at least to take on some technical challenge before receiving a final answer from the representative, despite having gone two interviews deep.

So, tell me your life story.