The Technical Interview process was good and well planned, but HR process needs a lot of work.
Below are the steps:
Step 1: I had a call with Engineering Manager and had a brief discussion about the role and my experience.
Step 2: Since I live in Berlin I was called for a back to back, In person interviews.
Step 2.a: Cross functional round with a Product manager, was a very good round to understand the Vision of Omio which i must say I was impressed of, and it was pretty good to see people are passionate and responsible and take great pride in the Work. It is inspiring.
The question went around from the Features what I would like to suggest to, Customer Experience etc.
Step 2.b.: Technical round I with a Prospective Team mate
This basically was to understand the experience, some (very Vague) technical questions like:
How would you say if you application response is facing sudden latencies?
This question has a lot of answers, and lot of approaches to go about. And these can tend to be "Magic Password" based Answers, i.e. the Interviewer has some idea about reasons as per his experience and If you say those same things you might be termed as good, else you might have to face some challenge there.
But overall it was okay. Also there were questions specific to Domain which we shared some experience. All in all it was pretty pleasant. The Interviewer seemed happy about the round as per my experience but its normally just a hunch.
Step 2.c.: Technical Round 2 with another Engineering Manager:
It was pretty pleasant, I was super nervous so had a bit shaky start but later it went super smooth. Had an Easy Algorithm, and another Easy Problem to solve.
The Engineering Manager seemed happy about the round and told me "Hope to see you soon!".
Step 2.d.: Last round with Engineering Director.
The Engineering Director is a very experienced person, and was a very good round. He told me a lot of things which was a learning for me. So was a pretty good round for me at least for my learning.
So far so good..
Step 3: Short Discussion with Human Resources Department Person.
HR was very cocky and unempathetic; Read the Excerpt below -
Question 1: Why do you want to work here?
Answer: I have been following the company since it was GoEuro (currently its called Omio( and just had Searching possibilities and didnt support booking yet. It has grown pretty well and I really like the vision with which its growing towards.
She: Oh so, its just 6 months since you are following.
(With a Rolling eyes face, and a Sarcastic tone )
I had an offer already and I had kept the answer on hold Since I wanted to try with GoEuro (Omio) before moving to another company.
Question: So you already have accepted the Offer?
Answer: No, as I mentioned in the Email, they are awating my acceptance.
She: This is weird. Why would you take another Interview, when you already have an Offer at hand
(With a Rolling eyes face, and a Sarcastic tone )
It's a Huge Red flag for the Interviewee, when Human Resource makes the Interviewee feel that the Company did a favour for coming to Interview. This undo's the great Image which was drawn up by the passionate Interviewers I met in the Process.
Though it didn't work out, the reason I am yet to receive a reply upon. But not working out is not a problem, its just the result.
But the experience with HR wasn't good;
After all these long process, Investing my time; I got a short Email saying they are sorry but they can't offer the role with a confusing text wherein as per my understanding they can't offer the Salary Expectations which I had.
All I wanted was, an actual feedback which atleast values my Time. But the HR chose not to reply to my 3 follow up emails.
This part gives me an impression that its good it didn't work out since it seems that the people value the company but HR doesnt seem to value employees or Company's image.
I wish all the success to Omio team, I hope Human Resource department solves the issues since these things