Fairly standard interview process, a half hour phone screen followed by full day interview. During the phone screen we discussed my experience and they asked a few basic programming questions (vectors vs. arrays and pointers in C++). The interviewer spent most of the time telling me about the role and the company. The face to face interview was at their main office in Abingdon. The day consisted of a mathematics/data science interview (30 minutes, and not very challenging) followed by a programming assignment. The programming assignment wasn't difficult but was very long and we weren't expected to complete it in the allotted time. The assignment was an architecture design problem and focused on classes and inheritance. No knowledge of algorithms was needed. The code was based on the old C++98 standard and a aversion of gcc over 8 year old was used to build the environment (There was no full C++11 support). Not a good sign for a cutting edge firm! The remainder of the day consisted of Lunch with a senior project manager, a 5 minute presentation I had previously prepared, a demonstration of one of their projects and a quick HR chat. There were very few culture fit questions. I was required to complete a personality test and send it back after completion which I didn't do. This didn't affect the outcome of my application which makes me wonder how much unnecessary bureaucracy would be involved with the job. I left the office having spent all day there feeling like "I hadn't been interviewed". By that I mean that I didn't feel the interview process had enabled me to show my strengths. This is ultimately a software engineering role and there was no face to face programming interview. The whole process from application to offer took over four months with very long waits between interview and outcome. I ultimate chose to decline the offer as I had received an offer from another organisation with a significantly larger remuneration package where I had a much better feel about the work and office. Tessella put a lot of effort into finding good candidates, but the compensation package doesn't suggest that they're interested in attracting and retaining good candidates.

Applied over the website, had an hour interview with a project manager and was told I would hear back for a second interview. I asked for a feedback on the interview and the interviewer seemed receptive, but it has been several weeks and I've heard nothing back. I also asked via email for an update and got no reply. The interview was pretty good, I was comfortable and got questions regarding my CV and cover letter. Also had good replies from the interviewe about my own questions regarding the role and the company.