It was a really long interview which started in at the beginning of November and ended almost in Christmas. The interview process consists of 5 steps: 1. Small talk with the recruiter guy. This is basically for them to know you’re fluent in English, no more secrets. When they see you are, they switch to Spanish to finish the interview and that’s pretty much the end of it. (Note that I applied to an offer based in Barcelona). 2. Tricky HackerRank coding challenge (two, as a matter of fact). Be careful here because you’ve got only 100 minutes to solve 2 difficult algorithmic problems. This is where Senior people will struggle the most as we’re not used to doing that kind of stuff anymore, so, I strongly recommend that you brush up the exercises you took during your freshman year in college. Of course, I nailed both of them and passed to the next steps. 3. Technical Interview with the Engineering Manager. This is where Senior Engineers shine! I successfully answered all the questions. I gave answers for everything with very good points, thus passing to the next step of the process. I was even told I had been the best applicant so far. 4. Get to know your new teammates! Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s not, so be careful here! This is supposed to be nice and smooth but this is where I failed! Never ever show your real power, ever! Try to blend in as much as you can (the more junior you appear to be, the better). Do not make them feel you are there to shine… I left the meetings (especially one of them) with the sense that I shouldn't have stood out so much . This whole process consists of 5 interviews in a row with 5 different people. In the last one, you get to meet the Engineering manager again. I was told everything went extraordinarily well and I kinda felt the deal was almost done. It turns out it was not. 5. Wait to be reached out and supposedly get an offer. In my case it had to be me who reached them out after a week with no news at all, I even started to think I was being ghosted. They finally replied to my email saying I would not get an offer. I have to admit the offer was in the 60-90K (euros) range, and I made very clear that I was applying to get the 90K and in no way would I have accepted less than that. That’s a good point to take into consideration, maybe the other candidate settled for 60 or 70K and got the job (I guess I will never know). My recommendation if applying for a job as an Engineer here that you try not to be involved in this single process only. Have always a fallback. Another mistake I made is to be more honest than necessary when I was asked if I was involved in more processes. I told the truth and I said yes and I don’t know if that affected the decision. The best answer to that question is: ‘this is personal information I do not wish to disclose at the moment'. Conclusion: I’ll keep an eye at the job opportunities because it’s still a good company, despite no having been extended an offer. However, I will only apply to the opportunities in the US as my experience in the Spanish headquarters have not been satisfying at all.
