After applying for the role via the careers page, I was contacted by HR for a quick phone screen. Following this, I had a longer, very good 'tell me about yourself' call with someone in HR, and then a call with a Director where we discussed management practices (dealing with low performers, career growth, agile team delivery, etc.). Everything was really positive, and I enjoyed my conversations.

Then, things went off the rails.

I was scheduled for a call with a senior engineer. My understanding was that we'd talk about my technical background and get into the tech stack the team uses so we could discuss that further. The call started with the engineer sending me a link to an online collaborative coding tool, where he began asking me obscure, esoteric coding puzzle questions that had no relevance to the job I was applying for. This was a hundred percent a hazing ritual by an engineer who wanted to feel smarter than the person he was testing. This was for a non-coding role in the organization.

A few days later, I received a 'thanks, but no thanks.' My candidacy for a non-coding role was rejected because I struggled through a surprise coding challenge with zero real-world implications.

If this is standard Shopify interview practice, then I'm sorry, Shopify is absolutely optimizing its hiring process for the wrong skill sets, and it's no wonder people hate working there.

How did you handle a low performer on your team?