So over the past few weeks, I've been managing the application process for senior level engineering jobs to about 15 or so tech companies. I found Shopify's process to be the one of the more baffling and bruising of all of these companies. I applied online to one of the many job openings for remote senior backend engineer they had listed. After I submitted my application and resume, they cut straight to a coding exercise with an engineer in Hackerrank within a few days. Personally, I found this exercise to be pretty easy. There was another engineer there to guide the exercise, but she mostly just watched what I was doing. It felt a little weird and impersonal, but fine enough for a quick screening. Then I received an email to scheduled what they refer to as the "Life Story Interview" a few days later. So, I meet with a recruiter over zoom for an hour. The crux of the exercise is to go over the work history in your resume, but to fashion it into a chronological narrative. What responsibilities did each position have? What difficulties did you bump up against? What motivated you to transition to the next role? I felt a strong rapport with the recruiter that was conducting the interview. As requested, I walked the recruiter through the narrative of my 14+ years of work, and I answered his questions honestly. Our session lasted 10-15 mins over the hour allotted, and I was left with the solid impression that I did well. Though, the recruiter did say at the very end "thanks for your honesty, it's refreshing!" which, sure, could be a legitimate compliment ... but it also feels like it's a backhanded hint that I was toooo honest or something of that nature? I really don't understand because I don't see how anything I said as particularly negative or damning for hiring a prospective employee. A few days later, I received a canned notification from the recruiter that they decided to pass on me for this role. I replied asking for any feedback he would be willing to provide, and I never received any response back. Fine ... par for the course in job hunting. It's just that ... in most engineering interview situations, I feel like when you're rejected, it's pretty easy to reason through it as "there was probably someone else that had more of the skills they were asking for" or "I probably didn't demonstrate some specific quality they really wanted." Those types of rationalizations don't feel particularly personal, and it makes it easier on both sides of the system. But, there's something about doing a very basic tech screen that doesn't really explore your skills, then to spend an hour combing through your work history and discussing it in depth and really explaining your motivations, philosophies, and evolution around work, and only then be rejected. It kind of feels like being stamped on the forehead with "SORRY, WE DON'T LIKE YOU ... THANKS" that ultimately made this just a weird negative experience for me. In other words, I never even got to any stage where I could discuss my skills or to any other engineers or managers. I was rejected by the company recruiter for apparently not being the type of all-around person they want to hire? It kind of makes me suspect they are mostly looking to hire shallow people that play "the game"? They're also probably spoiled for choice when it comes to candidates. Regardless, it's obviously not the company for me.