First interaction was with a recruiter who was very kind and easy to talk to. She was very helpful and setup a subsequent 1 hour tech screen with a software engineer.
The technical screen was great and since the engineer was on the solutions engineering team, he was able to provide some great insight into the culture and how the org operates. I passed this technical screen then was progressed to a 3rd conversation, this time with the hiring manager for the solutions engineering team.
The conversation was mostly about work history and interests; mostly a cultural-fit screen. I loved the sound of the company and the challenges the solutions engineering team works on. We were both pretty pumped about the prospect of me joining and I was moved not to the final rounds.
Since Stripe is a fairly technical product, part of the final rounds include 2 additional tech screens -- why I'm not sure, as I had already been given one at the beginning.
Up to this point, all my conversations had been great and I was extremely excited about the idea of working with everyone I had met. The final round would include about 4-5 hours of conversations over zoom, beginning with one of the technical screens with an engineer.
Unfortunately, the first interviewer, a software engineer from a different department, didn't even bother to introduce himself before starting the coding exercise. It was pretty clear he had next to zero social skills and on top of that, he was pretty difficult to understand. He also seemed to be chatting with coworkers while I was coding. Starting off without an introduction really rubbed me the wrong way and I felt it was extremely rude. I ended up being fairly distracted by his typing and interruptions and I didn’t perform nearly as well as I had with the first technical screen.
Subsequent interviews throughout the day would prove to be much more enjoyable. Most people at Stripe seem to be very friendly and enjoy working there.
The last interview of the day was also a coding interview — why they scheduled this after 5 hours of Zoom, I have no idea. This time, the interviewer was much nicer and introduced himself, however, English was clearly not his first language and it was very difficult for us to communicate. I spend a lot of time around people who don't speak English fluently or as their primary tongue but sadly, his English was so bad we wasted a lot of time just trying to understand one another. Ultimately, this interview went okay but still not ideal. There were also a lot of interruptions from the interviewer while I was coding.
Ultimately, my high expectations and extreme interest in the company began to waiver after the final two technical interviews. It's sad that this company is missing out on a lot of great talent because they put people in interviewing roles that have no place being there.
I had expected more of a company I had heard so many good things about. I feel like it just ended up being a huge waste of time and a massive letdown.
