Overall, an extremely poor and rushed interview process.
1. Call with Recruiter.
- Never would I believe a simple call with a recruiter could go wrong. I allowed the recruiter maximum flexibility (let them pick and I would make time) for the initial call and they failed to call me at their chosen time. Moreover, when trying to reschedule, they refused to admit they were at fault. The rescheduled call was just as poor with the recruiter claiming they tried to call me multiple times with no answer (they did not, they were just late...again).
2. Call with hiring managers (plural).
- The information I was given for my next set of calls did not match up who I was actually speaking with (nor did they inform me). So instead of me speaking with "Bob" I received a call from "Joe." I would like to emphasize that these individuals at least called me at the correct time at the same number with no problem (supporting my claim about the recruiter in the previous step). As for the content of these calls, they were basic technical questions around concurrency. The problem was the questions were so simple that the calls ended within minutes with a "Sorry, we don't have anything else to ask, we usually need to guide applicants through these questions over time."
3. On-site Interview.
Despite my claims that I was busy one week, the recruiter did not care and scheduled me to visit them anyway during that time due to other participants (now they were just rushing). I was once again given a schedule of 3 people to speak with, but upon arrival only 2 of them were in the office and I was informed that I was one of the last applicants being interviewed (translation: we already have someone else in mind but maybe you'll be better but we're really just going to waste your time). Well, the interviews went just as expected. The interviewees had very strong opinions about how their questions should be answered and were not accommodating to alternative solutions. There was one question that I conceded defeat to and requested the solution just to be told "look it up in the JDK source code." Well, upon looking it up after the interview I found that I was correct but the interviewer refused to acknowledge.
Upon finishing my on-site interview I was shoved out of the office and told they would have HR contact me. When I say shoved, I mean I was walked into a hallway, given the directions to the elevator bank (at the other side of the building), and had the door shut behind me (translation: the one individual, the hiring manager, had full power and did not even care to discuss with the other team member before declining me).
I received the "regret to inform you" the next day, at least I got a response.
