I had read the negative reviews about Gen Digital on Glassdoor and Indeed before applying, but I still decided to give them a chance. I travelled for over an hour in the rain for the technical interview, only to have a disappointing experience. In the first round, they told me straight away that I was “overqualified” — which usually just means they’re not really interested. Still, I proceeded. I was asked to open a test on my laptop and share my screen, while everyone watched on a big LED screen. There was one developer from India on Zoom and another junior developer in the room. They gave me a coding test on CodePen, where I had to type everything manually — it felt like working in the Stone Age. Then came the JavaScript part, for which they allowed me to use Google. I searched and found a relevant solution, but the junior developer suddenly said, “You can’t use that website because we created our JS question from there.” I laughed and replied, “That’s your issue, not mine — you said I can use Google.” He insisted I stop using it, so I refused to continue the test. It was obvious they had copied the test from online sources and were using it to judge others. Ironically, they didn’t seem to have strong technical skills themselves — the junior developer was literally Googling the questions while asking me! Also, forcing candidates to share their screens throughout the test is unprofessional. You should review the code after it’s done — not watch someone type live. It destroys confidence and creates unnecessary pressure. Overall, it was a very bad and unethical experience. If you don’t plan to hire someone, please don’t waste their time by calling them in for an interview. For context, the tasks were: CSS: Create three boxes. JavaScript: Take user input and determine whether it’s a past, present, or future date.

Code assessment forced me to fork a repo publically and had to send the assessment publically which means other candidates can see my code. I checked who forked the repo, and it seemed all have the same nationality. And I ended up having the interview with people from the same nation and faced difficult questions. Surprisingly, I didn't get hired.