This was not an overall positive experience with the outcome I'd wanted, but feel it's worth sharing as feedback in the hopes of giving insight for other engineers and as a means to move the hiring process, even just a little. I've newly in the market again after really 16 years committed to local companies so I'm not a fresh out of school engineer or a developer that's used to bouncing around often between companies. I was so excited about this company on the outset, one of the very rare companies with really good reviews overall, especially from current employees. When I'm looking at Glassdoor reviews I'm seeing internal reviews in the very subpar level imo. And this was a combo position to utilize my core competencies tech wise as well as many learn some of the languages I'm excited about, Go for instance. And I loved my first interview, second also good, open, lots of candor, third... It's getting to be a long day and I'm getting pressure at home. And fourth, a virtual whiteboard, which I probably have a lot of unnecessary fear around because all of my friends in the industry have basically absolutely do not do them, in part because it's important to set a precedent among engineers about what we will accept, but also because it's such an unnatural way to write code and in no way related to what engineers actually do in the real world. But I did agree to this interview because I was told it would be a real world problem, not some algorithm I haven't seen since college, over 25 years ago. And it was, but it was also relatively fair too, it was an outdated linked list, caching scheme, which is silly today because no one writes a custom linked list, every modern language provides a linked list and every modern language, framework provides very accessible, usable caching models, complete with and library. So it threw me for a curve ball and I wasn't clear if it was intentionally meant to throw me which felt disingenuous and mean. Ultimately I think this was probably more fair than most of what's out there as far as this type of virtual white board.... and! I think there's better ways. There must be. I've been an engineer for 25 years and have successfully worked for great companies, without all of this. I don't think I could have made it this far if I wasn't a little good at what I do and I don't think I'd still have so much passion for this if I didn't love what I do. There's got to be room for great engineers that aren't familiar with or comfortable yet with the current, modern approach to interviews, hiring or those of us that care so much we get hyper critical of our failures and don't do well in an environment that may set us up to fail on purpose rather than helping us succeed. Anyway, should leave this for a blog. Great company no doubt. I truly enjoyed all of the people I interacted with. Hiring process, not so much!

In short, Pie might be too picky for their own good. The initial screening with the recruiter was incredibly informative, helpful, and welcoming. I genuinely appreciated the time and effort the recruiter invested in our conversation. The interaction felt both professional and relaxed. For the second round, you will be paired with a technical manager, although not necessarily the hiring manager. During this stage, you will have forty-five minutes to answer seven questions. It is important to note that if this specific technical manager does not find your responses satisfactory, you will face rejection. Regardless of your professional experience, proficiency in their stack, or any soft skills you might possess, this second round interview holds significant weight in proving yourself to this individual, who acts as the "gatekeeper" in the process. My advice to Pie is that while it is commendable to trust your employees' judgment, it could be valuable to involve more than one technical manager or staff engineer in the second round interview. Please consider taking into account an applicant's background before rejecting them solely based on this round. Sometimes personalities may not align well, and assessing someone with many years of experience within a mere forty-five-minute verbal interview can be challenging. I believe incorporating another perspective on an applicant's responses would be beneficial and create a more inclusive environment. If it is necessary to have only one manager present, consider involving the hiring manager at the very least.