The process and interview experience were very positive overall. I will start the review with what could have made the experience even better, and then will add more details after that.
- The time to have the task reviewed could have been shorter (6 days after the planned/communicated date, 9 days after I'd completed it and informed the team that it is ready to be reviewed). All other steps were done within a couple of days from the prior step, so the task review time was the biggest factor in the overall length of the process
- During the time I’d been waiting for the task to be reviewed, I didn’t hear anything from the team. A proactive/heads-up email that things are taking longer, or at least acknowledging my email when I informed the team that I’d completed the task, would have improved the experience
Details:
The process is as described on the website.
For my first call with the recruiter, I had technical issues and eventually joined the call about 10 minutes late. That was the first time something like this happens, and I felt terrible about it. However, he was very supportive and eased off the pressure, which helped a lot, and he eventually offered me to schedule another call the next day to do it properly. He was following-up consistently with me throughout the whole process, which was an awesome experience.
The task review was really great! The reviewer asked clarifying questions, and we had very nice discussions on the Merge Request (the task was on a private repo hosted on GitLab).
The system design-style questions are apparently new at Hotjar (haven’t read about them even once before I interviewed, though they are starting to appear now on Glassdoor). And that was the first/main technical question I was asked in the interview (I was asked how I would implement one of the features of Horjar’s platform).
That question caught me a bit off-guard 🙈 and played a role in me not performing at my best during the interview. However, the interviewer handled things really well, and gave me a hint when needed. The other questions were general questions about experiences working in a team and things I’ve worked on. Also asked me about my best skill, and about a weakness I have.
The call with one of the engineering directors was one of the best I ever had. Not much technical, and more around my career story, experiences, and ups and downs 😊. He explained the engineering culture at Hotjar very well. Also asked me about my career goals and how I see Hotjar helping me achieve my goals.
During interviews, I ask detailed questions based on thorough research about the company, and sometimes I ask the same question to different people to get a better view on things. During the whole process, the team was transparent and consistent when answering questions, and they had a positive and encouraging attitude towards questions (they even went overtime to allow me to ask more questions).
A couple of tips for candidates:
- Understanding users, ability to work well in a cross-functional team, and effective communication skills are important to work as an engineer at Hotjar
- Nothing beats being genuine, transparent, and factual during the whole process. It is not about being flawless or painting a perfect picture
Obviously, these are my own opinions and perceptions 😊.
