My overall experience has been good.
But I'd like to share a feedback which I think is very crucial.
Please note that this is not coming because I was NOT offered the role, but a genuine room for improvement.
I interviewed for "Sr. Data Insight Analyst" role in ADI.
I loved the overall process- it tests candidate for every single of their skills.
First round- HR
Second round- HM video conferencing- This call was brainstorming and problem solving question and was a great first FILTER
Third Round- SQL technical coding. This was rigorous and time bound. This does test candidates with "high" SQL skills. Great Filter again.
Final Onsite round-
This is the round where there are feedback for.
The case interview was exhausting, time taking and lengthy- the organization needs to realize that for FT employees looking for a change this is hard.
Above all I was told the presentation to be prepared for 30-40 mins and leave the remaining time for questions.
Now, 30 mins is a LOT OF TIME and a lot of hard work goes into it and there is no way, this presentation can be just a summary with no deep dive into the details.
I was also asked to know that my audience is non-technical, so it was challenging to have 30-40 of material with balancing depth and summary.
One of the constructive feedback I received was, "she touched on all the points but conclusion was given less time". I'd like for the organization and hiring team to understand that meeting all the requirements, a candidate is bound to spend more time in "touching all the points" and then concluding.
2) Another key point- I was told since I have cleared the tech screening, most weightage, that is 60-70% of the weightage will be given to case interview and not so much to the technical onsite interview.
However, I was later informed I was rejected only because of feedback from the "technical" interview held onsite.
3) Talking about technical ONSITE interview- After performing LIVE coding in your screening, most onsite technical interviews focus more of thought process, algorithm design and not so much on LIVE aspect of the coding. (Companies like apple, amazon, google and microsoft also fall in this category).
However, this was different, in a 40 min interview, the interviewer came with 1-2 printed pages of the questions. It can take 5-10 times to just ready those questions carefully.
The time was limited but I wanted to make sure I read those questions and also ask all the "clarifying" questions before proceed to solve it. For most of the employers, this is a good thing. However, the reason I was rejected was stated to be "took help and asked questions to come to the final solution".
I was also asked to create tableau charts on the fly on interviewer's laptop. I took a bit of time to adjust to a new computer, and understand the ask of the question and was confident and vocal to let the interviewer know that it was slow because of a new computer. However I was given a feedback that "Needed help to reach the solution"
Please note, that i was able to reach the right solution. That too in the limited time I had. Also, both these questions were very simple- I get to work on more complex problems using SQL and Tableau. Infact, the technical SQL screening was tougher than this question.
But what I want to stress- is that a candidate is rejected even if they are able to arrive to the results.
Most employers understand that interview settings are always not optimal, in terms of time, etc. And typically never reject candidates just for the reason of asking questions.
Recommendations:
1) If getting some calculations on Tableau is important, please get those done as a part of techinical screening. Live coding is not best performed in person but take home, or tech-screening.
2) IF you want the candidate to work extremely hard to impress the team in the case interview (citing it to be most important), please stand by those words.
3) Please review the candidate thinking not just as a head, but also an an analyst (role). It's not possible to do a 30-40 min presentation, without touching all the points.
4) It might a problem in communication, but make sure that HR and Hiring team is aligned.