I interviewed for the Lead PHP Engineer role at Employment Hero and completed almost the full process, which included initial screening, a Codility challenge, cognitive/personality assessments, and a 90-minute technical interview with two senior engineers. The Talent Acquisition contact was professional and responsive throughout the process. What was positive: - Clear communication from TA at the beginning - Well-coordinated interview scheduling - The engineering team was friendly during the interview - The technical challenge was easy. Where the process broke down: The final technical interview focused heavily on PHP syntax recall and very granular PHP-specific behaviours, rather than leadership-level engineering capability. For a role titled Lead PHP Engineer, the expectation was closer to that of a PHP specialist/purist who works with WordPress by building plugins with OOP, rather than a Lead-level engineer responsible for architecture, cross-functional leadership, or system reliability. Despite having extensive experience delivering production systems, leading teams, and designing real-world architectures, the feedback I received was that I “seemed confused by PHP syntax” and that the system design portion “should have been more leadership-oriented.”(we're talking about a system design of a "Bitly" platform type) There’s an irony here: the system design exercise itself was scoped narrowly, yet the feedback expected a Principal/Engineering Manager level abstract design discussion layered on top of what was asked. Plus the feedback that I "seemed confused by PHP syntax" was invalid, since the engineers asked me to code in any language I prefer, and I picked PHP to show I haven't forgotten it since I've predominantly been working on JavaScript for the past 4 years due to market demand. So was the ask about PHP or programming logic and critical thinking? You tell me. Main issue candidates should be aware of: The role is labeled Lead, but the interview expectations combine: -A pure PHP expert (deep recall of syntax/peripherals and WordPress Gutenberg 😂 (Yes their website uses Gutenberg in 2025) -A principal-level system architect -A leadership-level system designer -An engineering manager-style communicator This hybrid expectation doesn’t reflect the actual job posting or what most Lead Engineer roles look like in the industry. If you are a strong full-stack engineer or a technical leader with broad architectural experience or someone who leads teams but isn’t living inside PHP daily… you may find the bar calibrated toward a very narrow engineering persona rather than leadership depth. Advice for future candidates: If you apply for this role, expect: - Deep PHP trivia-style expectations - A strongly backend-PHP-centric view of “seniority” - System design judged at a level higher than the scoped exercise Little room for demonstrating broader leadership capability Final thoughts: Employment Hero seems like a great company with strong culture and people, but the interview process for this specific role felt misaligned with what “Lead Engineer” typically represents in modern engineering orgs. The evaluation criteria leaned more toward strict specialisation than leadership, architecture, or practical system-building experience.