Current CTO exploring entrepreneurship on the side; coach; mentor; instructor.
Dedicated to promoting digital literacy and ideological diversity in tech.
Shopify was probably my worst experience with a technical interview, and was very disappointing.
Sometimes people don't get jobs: sometimes they're not qualified, sometimes they're just not a fit.
Unfourtunately, this was a scenario that seemed to have been caused from a disconnect in corporate communication vs boots-on-the-ground.
And most disappointingly, up until the last step of the interview, I would say that my experience working through the process was one of the best I had ever experienced.
Shopify's technical interview falls into a number of steps from phone interviews to live-chat pair-programming sessions to in-person interviews.
Throughout that process, the idea is reinforced that Shopify values candidates with a diverse technical background with a range of experience. They do their best to hammer home that the journey is as or more important than the destination, to not worry about arriving at the correct answer, and to instead focus on the process and problem-solving aspect.
This was thoroughly refreshing and a wonderful experience up until the day of the in-person interview.
The in-person interview was broken into three pieces:
a pair-programming session
technical discussion
another pair-programming session
Shopify ends every in-person day with a follow-up call to discuss feedback on their selection process. This is awesome, and I encourage everyone to do this. If you're the person applying, calling and asking for feedback when you don't get a job is always helpful.
Now, without going into the details, the ultimate feedback from the day revolved around miscommunications, misaligned expectations, and candidate volume.
The feedback that was given included direct quotes taken wildly out of context, as well as opinions that were created without a dialog with the candidate (me).
Other than the direct miscommunication with a misinterpretation of something that was said, the general consensus was that I was likable, effective, and knew what I was talking about. However, they had some problems with how I completed the pair-programming challenges. These problems were addressed during the interview as in fact not-being problems, but seemingly came back up during the feedback stage.
To their credit, I do think the bulk of the Shopify interview process was quite good. But the last stage left a really bitter taste in my mouth, as it seemed to be the polar opposite of the culture they seemed to advertise from the initial steps. I also don't think this should discourage anyone from applying. Shopify fields an insane number of candidates every single day. The final day of interviews is completed by developers, not hiring managers. This will mean that they could have any level of hiring experience including none at all, and I understand that.
If anything, the best thing I got out of the process was a reinforcement in my desire to work for smaller companies :)
Thanks for documentating your experience here! I think the behaviors of these companies should be more transparent. Sites like Glassdoor and reviews like these keep them accountable.
Current CTO exploring entrepreneurship on the side; coach; mentor; instructor.
Dedicated to promoting digital literacy and ideological diversity in tech.
Like I mentioned, it's hard to say where the issue was, and in something as charged as a job interview, it's hard to come across as unbiased.
In my personal opinion, it felt mostly just like the developers doing the interviews with me didn't have interview/management experience: how to get the most out of a candidate, topics to explore, etc.
The critical miscommunication was regarding a question to do with testing. The interviewer asked me what my current jobs architecture was and if we had automated tests. I said no, and when he asked why, I explained that it was a legacy product and that testing was difficult as the software wasn't written in a way to deeply support them.
My feedback from the followup was that the interviewer took my comments as suggesting I didn't believe in unit tests and thought they were a waste of time.
Silly things like this are easily solvable by taking notes and just being present, and it's a real kick in the teeth to feel like you have to play a he-said she-said game with a potential employer.
Yeah it sounded like the interviewer heard what they wanted to hear. They already made up their mind about you. Either that or they were incredibly lazy that day and just jotted down the first interpretation of your answer without taking any time at all to think about it. Both cases are sloppy and unprofessional.
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Shopify was probably my worst experience with a technical interview, and was very disappointing.
Sometimes people don't get jobs: sometimes they're not qualified, sometimes they're just not a fit.
Unfourtunately, this was a scenario that seemed to have been caused from a disconnect in corporate communication vs boots-on-the-ground.
And most disappointingly, up until the last step of the interview, I would say that my experience working through the process was one of the best I had ever experienced.
Shopify's technical interview falls into a number of steps from phone interviews to live-chat pair-programming sessions to in-person interviews.
Throughout that process, the idea is reinforced that Shopify values candidates with a diverse technical background with a range of experience. They do their best to hammer home that the journey is as or more important than the destination, to not worry about arriving at the correct answer, and to instead focus on the process and problem-solving aspect.
This was thoroughly refreshing and a wonderful experience up until the day of the in-person interview.
The in-person interview was broken into three pieces:
Shopify ends every in-person day with a follow-up call to discuss feedback on their selection process. This is awesome, and I encourage everyone to do this. If you're the person applying, calling and asking for feedback when you don't get a job is always helpful.
Now, without going into the details, the ultimate feedback from the day revolved around miscommunications, misaligned expectations, and candidate volume.
The feedback that was given included direct quotes taken wildly out of context, as well as opinions that were created without a dialog with the candidate (me).
Other than the direct miscommunication with a misinterpretation of something that was said, the general consensus was that I was likable, effective, and knew what I was talking about. However, they had some problems with how I completed the pair-programming challenges. These problems were addressed during the interview as in fact not-being problems, but seemingly came back up during the feedback stage.
To their credit, I do think the bulk of the Shopify interview process was quite good. But the last stage left a really bitter taste in my mouth, as it seemed to be the polar opposite of the culture they seemed to advertise from the initial steps. I also don't think this should discourage anyone from applying. Shopify fields an insane number of candidates every single day. The final day of interviews is completed by developers, not hiring managers. This will mean that they could have any level of hiring experience including none at all, and I understand that.
If anything, the best thing I got out of the process was a reinforcement in my desire to work for smaller companies :)
Thanks for documentating your experience here! I think the behaviors of these companies should be more transparent. Sites like Glassdoor and reviews like these keep them accountable.
Like I mentioned, it's hard to say where the issue was, and in something as charged as a job interview, it's hard to come across as unbiased.
In my personal opinion, it felt mostly just like the developers doing the interviews with me didn't have interview/management experience: how to get the most out of a candidate, topics to explore, etc.
The critical miscommunication was regarding a question to do with testing. The interviewer asked me what my current jobs architecture was and if we had automated tests. I said no, and when he asked why, I explained that it was a legacy product and that testing was difficult as the software wasn't written in a way to deeply support them.
My feedback from the followup was that the interviewer took my comments as suggesting I didn't believe in unit tests and thought they were a waste of time.
Silly things like this are easily solvable by taking notes and just being present, and it's a real kick in the teeth to feel like you have to play a he-said she-said game with a potential employer.
Yeah it sounded like the interviewer heard what they wanted to hear. They already made up their mind about you. Either that or they were incredibly lazy that day and just jotted down the first interpretation of your answer without taking any time at all to think about it. Both cases are sloppy and unprofessional.