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Recent Stripe Interview for SSE position

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Senior Software Engineer at Taro Community3 months ago

Hi folks, I need your help to understand if any action can be taken from my side here.

I gave Stripe interviews recently for SSE (Bangalore) and here is the feedback I received.

Round1 (LLD) - Strong yes

Round2 (Bug Squash) - No

Round3 (Integration Round) - yes

Round4 (Systems Design) - Strong yes

Round5 (Manager Round) - yes

I am aligned with this feedback except Round 2 (Bug Squash). I thought I had a strong yes in that. I was very easily able to navigate the code, find out the bug, fix it, and explain it. We were left with 15 more minutes so she gave me another bug to solve. I reached halfway on that, was able to partially figure out the bug. Didn't solve it but I think the expectation is to solve just one bug.

I have communicated the above with HR with a positive outlook.

Also, I felt that the interviewer wasn't very present and interested from the beginning so I think that the interviewer hasn't given much thought to this.

Current status: They have sent the case to the hiring committee for SSE but the HR mentioned that I might get downleveled. But I have been pretty vocal that I want to be considered for SSE only. Another factor she mentioned is I have a borderline work ex of 5.5/6 years so that might also contribute to this.

I asked the HR if I could reinterview for this round but she mentioned that's not possible and is not part of company policy.

Anything that I can do here?

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Discussion

(2 comments)
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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    3 months ago

    You're interviewing for SSE meaning Senior Software Engineer, right?

    There's not much you can do in terms of arguing to Stripe that the Bug Squash interview was unfair or that the interviewer was disengaged.

    The best thing you can do is gain leverage by getting a competing offer. If a comparable company gives you the Senior level, that can carry some weight to have Stripe uplevel you. (This is actually what happened in 2017 when I received offers between Facebook and Snapchat.)

    If you only have the Stripe offer, watch this: Negotiating With A Single Offer

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      Senior Software Engineer [OP]
      Taro Community
      3 months ago

      Yes, that's what I meant by SSE. Thanks Rahul!