Some weeks ago I was in the process of looking for a new job, weird thing is every company has its own way of hiring. The different ways were:

The position:

Senior Software Engineer or Tech Lead

The process:

Common interview:

HR interview to get to know your background and a little bit tech stuff, then you get into the process.

Company A (Senior Software Engineer):
The HR told me if I was available for a quick call with a more technical person, I told her yes and I didn't realize the process started.

1. First call (interview) was about my background, technical questions and some problem solving challenges
2. Second interview was with the client and someone else from the company I was applying to, they asked about my background, then proceeded with some technical questions and some scenarios on how to guide junior/mid developers and at the end a couple of problem solving challenges

Got an offer.

Company B (Senior Software Engineer):
In the first interview the HR person told me the interview was going to be a pair-programming interview and that they didn't like to approach of a coding challenge to take home (which is somehow common here in Europe).

After the first interview, they invited me to an on-site interview. The interview was with two Tech Leads.
1.- Started about my background, then I started asking questions about how the company worked, the teams structure, and I continued asking questions
2.- Then we proceeded to some technical questions about my background, my expectations and why I wanted to work there.
3.- After that we switched rooms and the supposed "pair-programming" (PP) interview started, my bad was to forgot that the interview was supposed to be a PP, I started solving the challenge and as I was going they asked me to change the implementation. My implementation was not following Functional Programming and they asked me to change it. I finished the challenge.

Didn't get an offer. Feedback: Generic feedback.

Company C (Tech Lead):
After the first interview, the HR person told me was not needed to have a lot of experience being Tech Lead (I had 4 months), we proceeded to the process.

1.- Interview with the VP of Operations and Co-Founder (2hrs). The interview was about my experience, what I learned from each job and why I left, my relationship with my manager and the stakeholders
2.- They sent me a coding challenge: create a project similar to the product they were offering. I sent the project in a few days because I already had an offer
3.- Third interview was with the CTO, VP of Product and Startup Accelerator Agent (3hrs). Once again we went through my experience, the coding challenge how I solved it, some soft skills questions, they asked me about my experience as entrepreneur and how close I had worked with users/clients

Feedback was that I didn't have enough experience being Tech Lead.

Didn't get an offer.

Company D (Senior Software Engineer):
3 phases, all the interviews shared the same structure: About my background, my expectations, some technical questions and coding challenge. As I was making progress the intensity increased.

Overall the process was interesting; the last interview was really intense and the interviewer asked me a couple of questions that put me under pressure. I will be sharing those questions in future posts.

Got an offer.

What I learned

It's good to do interviews from time to time just to know what's being asked in the market, what they are doing and what they care about. It's quite common for Software Engineers to switch jobs and could be good, some companies get stuck in a product and they don't invest in new technologies nor processes. I learned how new companies were working about new concepts during the interviews and some tips to improve.

I recommend that you try doing interviews from time to time, even tough you are happy in your current position/company it's good to learn from others, it may also help you to improve the processes in your company in terms of interviews or the way to solving problems.

What's your story? Any advice you can share for my next time?

Thanks for reading!