Software Developer Interview Experience - Ottawa, Canada
July 1, 2014
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
A recruiter got in touch via email. The whole process took about 1.5 months, largely because I was having a busy school term, and they were accommodating.
- Step 1: Casual chat with the recruiter about career prospects and goals, and information about Shopify.
- Step 2: Code samples on GitHub and past projects were reviewed by Shopify developers. They actually left comments on some of the code on GitHub, which I found very nice.
- Step 2: A 45-minute video chat with the same recruiter a week later, covering background, likes, and dislikes. It was a very personable and informal chat to get to know each other.
- Step 3: A 45-minute interview with an engineer, going over general technical questions. It was an informal chat about development, methodologies, past experience, and projects (discussing challenges encountered in the past, how they were handled, etc.). It felt like chatting with a colleague about technology.
- Step 4: A 45-minute interview with another developer who had more experience with the type of work I had done in the past. We had more involved discussions about what I had done, why I decided to make certain technical decisions, and discussed the current landscape within that field (scaling big data solutions, for example).
Overall, a very positive experience.
Questions
Tailored to personal experience from past employment and projects.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 23 interview experiences for the Shopify Software Developer role in Ottawa, Ontario.
Success Rate
35%
Pass Rate
Shopify's interview process for their Software Developer roles in Ottawa, Ontario is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive65%
Neutral22%
Negative13%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Shopify's Software Developer interview process in Ottawa, Ontario.
Shopify Work Experiences
3.0
Fun work, entitled culture
Software Developer • Current Employee
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
January 27, 2017
Pros: Fun work environment with some really great people who are passionate about what they do.
Great benefits, great offices. I've made a lot of friendships that will last a long time.
Cons: There seems to be a strong sense of entitlement within the company (employees expecting people to clean up after them, be babied, etc.), especially with long-term employees. Unfortunately, there are also many cliques.
Lots of problems aren't addressed in the right way, but for example, through witch hunts over Slack (the internal method of communication).
Even though the internal message is that 'career changes are encouraged,' it is a very difficult and confusing process, and I never felt like I had the support from my manager to pursue a career change.
5.0
Great company with a fantastic culture
Software Developer • Former Employee
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
February 17, 2015
Pros: I was on the development team at Shopify, and I looked forward to coming to work every day. I received fairly generous pay and benefits, and the work was interesting. But the thing I appreciated most was a manager that really cared about how I was doing and gave me actionable feedback to help me improve. I felt like it was a great experience for developing my career.
Among the other pluses were:
* Worked 8 hours a day for the most part; people didn't care when, as long as I showed up to meetings and got my work done. I personally felt no pressure to work longer hours.
* Was never concerned with making money, only with delivering the best quality product.
* Great emphasis on craftsmanship and quality of product; everyone was very dedicated to this goal.
* An excellent CEO: technically skilled, visionary, and inspiring. Tobi deserved to win CEO of the Year (Globe and Mail 2014).
Cons: It was sometimes difficult to communicate between teams, and sometimes the decision-making process was a bit opaque (though upper management was remarkably transparent). Though developers are treated well, sales and support staff seemed to get their jobs reduced to performance metrics (which are visible to everyone in the company). I don't know if I'd want to work in a job like that.
3.0
Ok, but sometimes weird. On-call sucks
Software Developer • Current Employee
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
July 2, 2024
Pros: Money, smart people, fun problems.
Cons: Oncall is demanding; lots of project management.
- 3.0Fun work, entitled cultureSoftware Developer • Current EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaJanuary 27, 2017Pros: Fun work environment with some really great people who are passionate about what they do. Great benefits, great offices. I've made a lot of friendships that will last a long time.Cons: There seems to be a strong sense of entitlement within the company (employees expecting people to clean up after them, be babied, etc.), especially with long-term employees. Unfortunately, there are also many cliques. Lots of problems aren't addressed in the right way, but for example, through witch hunts over Slack (the internal method of communication). Even though the internal message is that 'career changes are encouraged,' it is a very difficult and confusing process, and I never felt like I had the support from my manager to pursue a career change.
- 5.0Great company with a fantastic cultureSoftware Developer • Former EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaFebruary 17, 2015Pros: I was on the development team at Shopify, and I looked forward to coming to work every day. I received fairly generous pay and benefits, and the work was interesting. But the thing I appreciated most was a manager that really cared about how I was doing and gave me actionable feedback to help me improve. I felt like it was a great experience for developing my career. Among the other pluses were: * Worked 8 hours a day for the most part; people didn't care when, as long as I showed up to meetings and got my work done. I personally felt no pressure to work longer hours. * Was never concerned with making money, only with delivering the best quality product. * Great emphasis on craftsmanship and quality of product; everyone was very dedicated to this goal. * An excellent CEO: technically skilled, visionary, and inspiring. Tobi deserved to win CEO of the Year (Globe and Mail 2014).Cons: It was sometimes difficult to communicate between teams, and sometimes the decision-making process was a bit opaque (though upper management was remarkably transparent). Though developers are treated well, sales and support staff seemed to get their jobs reduced to performance metrics (which are visible to everyone in the company). I don't know if I'd want to work in a job like that.
- 3.0Ok, but sometimes weird. On-call sucksSoftware Developer • Current EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaJuly 2, 2024Pros: Money, smart people, fun problems.Cons: Oncall is demanding; lots of project management.
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