Received a form email asking for a 90 second video talking about why you admired Flagright's culture. Did some more digging and figured out that these tech bros subscribe to the "dig yourself into an early grave for a toxic boss culture". Must've skipped over the part of the description that read people who "actually prioritize work life balance" will "struggle here" in the job description.
Needless to say, I withdrew my application. Not looking to be exploited by an overtly toxic organization like this.
Editing based on the response given: A 90 second video is not "too much" for me as a candidate. Asking me to do that before I've had a chance to get to know Flagright's culture, combined with the highly toxic, concerning wording in the job description is what makes it too much. This company likes to talk about hiring people who can "leave their ego at the door" and I will say, that's very much my ethos. No task is too "small" for me or too far removed from my "job description". I'm happy to put my ego aside for a company that does the same. The company's job description indicates an incredibly inflated ego of its own importance and also indicates the extreme level of the founders' egos. If a company is not willing to put its own ego aside when asking me to do the same, that's what makes it toxic. I'm sure the "founding recruiter" will take this as more "angry wording" that obviously reflects poorly on me and not them, but hopefully this helps other sane humans avoid this company in the future.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
To submit a video talking about my passion for Flagright's culture?
Ed the Founding Recruiter here.
We try to be upfront in our job descriptions about the pace and expectations, because we'd rather a candidate self-select out early than discover a mismatch later. On that front, it sounds like the posting did its job. The video stage is designed to identify candidates who are willing to approach every task without ego and there will obviously be some who find that difficult. This is a particularly useful cultural filter for more experienced candidates. When a 90 second video with basic questions is too much for a candidate, that's time saved for both sides. Your comment (apart from the judgemental angry wording) helps other candidates self-select and supports our hiring process exactly as we intended, so thank you for helping us in your own way.
A couple of rounds of interviews - met with the two founders separately for behavioural rounds, then a case study round that simulates the role. Then two other behavioural rounds with the senior designer, and then again with one of the founders.
Generally, you can see that the culture is young and exciting and everyone is committed and understands the mission.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Other than the standard interview questions in the behavioural rounds:
1. The case study round is actually quite fun - it really is a good test of your knowledge of their APIs and how you would go about explaining these to a client, as the two Product Specialists will stress-test your knowledge
2. One thoughtful question in my final interview was, "What is something you believe that others don't?" - This certainly threw me off at first, but it shows genuine interest on the part of the interviewer (the founder) to know you as a person.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Flagright
Interview
Assignment then interview based on that assignment. Asked to optimize the approaches used. Assignment was based on mostly development and was asked to build a web app for specific case