Overall, I would rate the hiring process 2 out of 5. The two stars are for the interaction with the HR manager, who was very organized and friendly — this was the only positive aspect of the experience.
What I didn’t like, first of all, is that the company requires candidates to complete a fairly extensive take-home assignment before even inviting them to the first interview. I insisted on having an initial HR call before starting the task.
After that, there is a team interview — a call with four people where you are asked to complete another assignment live. This was the first time I’ve encountered such a format. In my opinion, it is very stressful, and that stress clearly affects both the quality and speed of work. It also doesn’t reflect real working conditions, where no one typically observes every step of how you complete a task.
Finally, I didn’t like that a large part of the assignment required generating AI-based creatives, which meant using tokens that you have to pay for yourself. I find it unfair that as a candidate you are already in a more vulnerable position compared to the company, yet they still expect you to invest your time into unpaid assignments and even spend your own money on AI tokens to complete them. In my opinion, this is quite unreasonable.
To be honest, after the team interview my impression of the company significantly worsened, and I’m actually glad I didn’t receive an offer.
