The interview process was standard, but the structure of the technical assessment seemed as if it were proposed by someone inexperienced in engineering recruitment. I had a pleasant experience with the individuals I met during the face-to-face interviews; they were genuinely amiable and professional. The technical take-home assignment, specifically focused on Elixir, was not well-conceived. It's surprising that even in 2023, some companies expect candidates, many of whom have full-time jobs and familial obligations, to invest more than 2 or 3 hours in such tasks. The preliminary setup and familiarization with Elixir alone can take several hours. Moreover, the assignment comprises THREE stages, none of which can be considered straightforward. It's paradoxical how the company expressed a keenness to onboard engineers eager to learn Elixir, yet evaluates them stringently on their current Elixir proficiency. Consequently, I submitted a largely incomplete assignment, feeling that I had dedicated adequate effort without discerning further value in persisting. The primary reason cited for my rejection was the incompleteness of this assessment. On a positive note, I appreciated their prompt feedback after the submission of my assignment.

TA > Hiring Manager > Take-home exercise. No prior Elixir experience, so the exercise was an easier one. Seemed focused on proving I had learned about the Phoenix ORM framework, and was able to apply optimal performance choices to my solutions. What came as a surprise was a pedantic review of trivial choices, grading them as “major issues”. Seemed obvious they were justifying a preformed judgment. Zero interest in people’s management skills, so I wonder what a toxic environment this company might be. Total waste of time.