Dynatrace

Application

I applied through an employee referral. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Dynatrace in August 2019.

Interview

I applied through a referral from India for Dynatrace Austria.

I got a call from recruiter and they explained the process. They would also mention to read about the product and gets your hands dirty with free trial version. I did the same and read about the product. I got a demo from a friend I know who was using Dynatrace.

First they will give you a coding test with time limit of 3 hours. It was very simple test for checking basic coding skills. I completed that in 1 hour and gave feedback on the test.

Note: Since I gave many interviews in the past in Europe, I knew the common reason they come up for rejection. It is always that “They found someone with more experience”.

First interview: It was with the development lead. We had really good conversation on my skills, projects I worked on, Dynatrace and the role. He asked a lot of questions and validated my skill set and my expertise in DevOps. I was sure not to waste my time if they are looking for local candidate and asked them in first round whether they have issues with my experience, skill set or relocation. He said your skill set matches and they are looking for someone like me. I was happy that at least I would get a genuine reason if they reject me. They first round went well and I was sure they will call me for second. The interviewer gave my reference to two teams and found me fit for both.

I got a call from recruiter within a week that there will be one more round with teach leads of two teams and that first interviewer is happy with my profile and gave good feedback. She also told me after this round I will have to fly to Austria for onsite interviews.

Second interview: This round was with two tech leads of different teams. They both were very interested with my skill set and projects I have done. It was a good conversation with both of them. They asked more questions than the first round and validated my skill set. They both looked happy after the interview and shared very positive feedback. They also discussed with me which team I would like to join. I gave a genuine response and chose DevOps over Backend (Java). The interview ended on positive note and I was sure that I will be called for the next round. I was promised that recruiter will get back to me within one week.

Seven days passed and I haven’t heard back from them so I sent email and gave alternate number if the other one wasn’t working (There were no emails either). I got a reply from the recruiter after 4 days that there is holiday season in Austria and she promised to get back by end of week latest. I called out for dates of onsite interview since I had to inform my team and also had few other travel plans. Ok, the week passed and I got no update, I sent another email on coming Monday for the update but no response.

Finally after 20 days I got a rejection email I was afraid of. Here is the exact text “Even though your experience is very interesting for us, we regret to inform you that after the interviews with you we also interviewed with other candidates and here made the decision to go further with another candidates. This person brings a little more experience in the Systems Engineering field.” There were no mentions of my skill set, interview feedback.

I was so pissed off after reading this email. Haven’t I asked in first interview that do not give me this reason? Rather I would have liked comparison on skill level. It was totally a waste of time which cost me my travel plans and frustration after the email. I contacted the recruiter and development lead on LinkedIn. Development lead never replied but recruiter called. I told her why I wasn’t expecting this reason, how they could have done better finding a candidate. She came up with a reason that they found one internal candidate (In Dynatrace) with Dynatrace experience and asked me I would have done the same. Second, they got this candidate referral just 2 weeks back and hence the delay. Yes, I agree I would have done the same and would have given priority to internal candidate > local candidate > international candidate but isn’t that responsibility of a recruiter to follow the same order? No explanation on that, call ended with disappointments.

Feedback for Dynatrace: I really liked the product. I enjoyed interviews and felt it was a good discussion to know and validate my skill set. The process was good and interviewers were friendly and easy to talk (5 out of 5 stars for the interviewers). Please work on other aspects of hiring which I mentioned.

Interview Questions