Pros: fine engineers. Cons: seems like somebody from AppNexus/Xandr/AT&T stole my $200+ hotel reimbursement; also non-compete agreement nonsense in the job offer. I initially applied to a position of a Senior Frontend SWE in Encino, CA, we had a phone call with the hiring manager, she was going to proceed, but then something happened on their side and they temporary stopped hiring in that city. As long as I’m a fullstack lead engineer, then I asked the recruiter to check positions in Portland and we came up with a Senior SWE role on Webservices team in Portland, OR. This is not a super-exciting team for many folks, as the team’s task is quite tedious – they convert old legacy monolith to a set of independent (micro) services. But I’m fine with this job – it has its own challenges, requires lot of collaboration, etc. – so it seemed interesting for me. We had a phone call with the hiring manager. He gave me a homework task to complete at home – just google Gilded Rose kata and you will find it. Then we had a tech screen call with one of their engineers – to discuss the task + answer some technical questions - nothing tricky, mostly quick exam-style, like “what’s HTTP” or “tell me about XSS”. Then they invited me to Portland for an on-site interview. The interview day had a couple of tech sessions and a lunch with the hiring manager. The tech sessions were not focused on algorithms or structures. One session was to check the experience – answering general industry questions like “what’s REST”, “what happens when you type a URL in the browser bar and press Enter”. Also there were soft skill experience-related questions like “did you have experience working under pressure, tell us about that”. Another session was more focused on details - code a simple algorithm on a whiteboard, tell how unit tests should be implemented, how CSRF attacks work, etc. Lunch with the hiring manager was a normal lunch, not an interview round. So it was just a nice talk. The manager also checked whether I’d be interested in a more advanced role of a tech lead for the team - and I was fine with that, as I had already been doing similar stuff at my current company. In a couple of days after the on-site interviews they sent me a job offer for the aforementioned tech lead role. I was interested in it, but unfortunately we didn’t agree on compensation - it was not competitive. The compensation included base pay, annual bonus and one-time relocation/sign-up bonus (which you should decrease by 35% due to taxes, before actually trying to cover your relocation costs). Overall the whole package looked to me much lower than at my current company, considering the benefits that were worse at AppNexus (including more expensive medical insurance), working conditions, and life in Portland. And the total compensation was also lower than the total compensation suggested to me by a different company later. Thus for me it was not financially viable to join AppNexus – would be like a step backward. I guess the major problem is that they don’t provide RSUs and ESPP after acquisition by AT&T, which I think made them fell out of proper compensation level. Another thing I discovered later - when carefully reading the legal language of the job offer - is that it contained a non-compete agreement. Which is just nonsense – literally makes you a slave of the company. Such an agreement is not legal in California, but is still legal in Oregon. It means, that after leaving AppNexus you cannot be hired by any other good software company – because no way it wouldn’t compete with AT&T in one of their numerous markets. So be very aware of that, never sign such stuff. Overall the people were nice, engineers had passion and skills, I liked them. One issue - with people - came much later, when even after numerous reminders I didn’t receive the $200 reimbursement for the hotel (they promised to pay for it before the interviews, and multiple times after). I think somebody in AppNexus/Xandr/AT&T just stole it. I could go to a small-claims court to resolve the issue, but for now decided to not spend time on this matter.

Brutal 6 hour gauntlet involving engineers, team leads, executives, etc. Even though lunch was provided, it can be a physically and mentally draining process in which you are more likely to screw up in the later stages. The worst part of the process by far was an exercise where you are asked to come up with cases for their domain specific problem in which you define the rules to something you have no real knowledge of, and are constantly questioned whether or not the answer you provide is fair to the company or customers. It was difficult in that there was no engagement with the interviewer in a process that attempts to make you contradict yourself, when none of the knowledge needed to answer the problem is given to you.

The whole process was very quick and warm welcoming, which made me felt appreciated. It's one of the key factors that I decided to accept the offer. I applied online. The recruiter responded in 2 days with a very warm message, following with a nice chat over the phone. Then, had an 1:1 with the VP of engineering at Starbucks. The conversation was more about learning each other, plus some technical questions. But nothing was too difficult. After that, another technical screen over phone with the hiring team lead. The questions covered a broad range of the tech stacks they're using. Some of questions were quite advanced. At last, had 3 on-site interviews with the manager, team lead, and another senior engineer. Two of them were whiteboard coding. They gave hints at the appropriate time.