It started with an introductory meeting where we discussed the position, the way of working, the company's philosophy, and the approximate compensation they offered (which, honestly, was quite low for the industry).
The real issue came with the first test. Instead of giving me a direct test for the technical artist role they were hiring for, they decided to start with a C# and C++ test (according to them, it was meant to be basic to demonstrate minimum knowledge, since a technical artist usually focuses on other areas like optimization, materials, shaders, tool creation, etc.).
To my surprise, the test was extremely difficult, featuring bitwise questions, tricky theoretical questions, practical programming exercises, all under tight time constraints. During the test, I clearly demonstrated advanced programming knowledge, as I successfully completed all their practical coding challenges.
Even so, it took them much longer than they initially stated to get back to me, only to say that I didn’t seem to have a grasp of programming and suggested I check out basic YouTube tutorials. It was an insulting response to a professional with years of experience in the field. I’m not sure what they're looking for, but if you can ace their programming test, I suggest trying your luck at Ubisoft. They pay much better, the interviews are more respectful and better tailored to each candidate.
