I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Octane in Oct 2021
Interview
The role was software engineer and would have been heavy in data engineering responsibilities.
I was given three interviews at first - a live coding test where I could use python (one question), an HR/culture-fit type of test, and a SQL test (multiple short questions). I was given the option to spread them out or knock them out in one day. After those I was given an additional interview with the person I would be reporting to, which seemed unusual due to what I was told at the beginning, but was in fact great to have more time to speak with another member of the team about the position and my experience.
The process was incredibly smooth and fast, which was greatly appreciated. Multiple members of the team remained in contact with me throughout the process. I felt extremely welcomed by the team and I felt like these were highly competent people that would be great to work with.
I would strongly encourage others to apply here based on my interview experience.
Ultimately I declined the offer due to receiving a stronger offer, but I would have had no reservations accepting this offer if it were my only one. It was a difficult choice because of the strong positive impression everyone made on me.
There was a red flag with a discrepancy in how location-based pay would work. I was told that I could move to New York and receive a *specific* salary increase by the HR manager on the phone (since I had indicated that was my plans). When I attempted a negotiation to come up to be more competitive with my other offer, I learned that the location-based increase would in fact be performance-based after moving, so nothing was in writing. I would be moving to New York in < 1.5 months so I was not sure how we could possibly measure performance in that short of time. I am also not sure why one person told me an *exact* number and then the higher-up told me there was not an exact number - it would actually come down to performance. Ultimately the offer was still solid and I would have been happy to accept if my other offer did not beat it. I would recommend having crystal clear moving plans if you're headed to New York so that this can be part of the discussion in very clear terms. In my case I would be signing a lease within 3-4 weeks of signing the offer, which I did not make perfectly clear just how soon I would be moving and this impacted my offer (forced it lower since I was not already there), so another company offering "New York pay" beat it by more than 15%.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Be prepared to write some SQL if going into data role. I do not wish to reveal the coding question but it would be somewhere between easy and medium leetcode difficulty, and I would not consider it to be "tricky".
Had a screen interview on one day and then three interviews on a separate day - technical/coding interview, cultural fit interview, and design interview. I got an offer the following week.