Continuing on the theme of how job hunting sucks, here’s another example of exactly what I’m talking about: X-Team International.
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No, I’d never heard of them before either.
I found X Team through this job posting on Authentic Jobs. It sounded like a good fit, so I applied, including a brief message why I thought I’d be a good fit. Like you do.
Step 1 – Interview via two weeks of emails back and forth
I got an automated acknowledgement email immediately, and a real human email about an hour later. The guy introduced himself as an “Ambassador from X-Team”, thanked me for my application, then asked:
If you have a quick second, what web/mobile technology are you working with that interest you the most right now? Thanks again for signing up, I’m looking forward to chatting more.
That was it. I was of the impression he hadn’t actually read my application, but they probably get tons of ’em anyway, so who can blame them. I replied nicely.
It turned into a series of emails back and forth between me and Mr. Ambassador, where he would ask interview-type questions and each time I replied in kind. After each of my replies, a day or two later (they were obviously in no hurry) Mr. Ambassador would respond with glowing praise:
Thanks for getting back to me! Very very impressive work! Kudos on that
Honestly probably one of the best responses I’ve received for these questions
At no point in the entire process did I ever actually talk to anyone — over the phone, Skype, or otherwise. It’s the first job I’ve ever applied to that, apparently, has a 100% email interview process (although they never explained that up front, it just worked out the way in the end).
I did, however, notice their weekly email newsletter started showing up in my inbox only 2 days after I applied. That was kind of annoying — the newsletter came faster than the replies from Mr. Ambassador, which is all I really cared about.
Step 2 – Coding Test
Finally, I was introduced (by email) to their CTO, who sent me the coding test, which turned out to be a “mock code review”. They sent me a dummy php file which I would review, comment the issues, and return back to them. If you know a little PHP read on, otherwise skip ahead to Step 3…
example.php:
The first thing you’ll notice is the file requires two outside files, lib/db.php and lib/session.php, neither of which are provided. The instructions I was given acknowledge this and say to “pretend they exist”. Actually it would be important to see those files, because it could have a big impact on things later on.
For example, look at line 67. Here we have a query string variable from the client side (read: not safe) populated into the variable $id. Next $id is run through a function called validateUserId() which only checks $id using PHP’s is_numeric(), which isn’t a great idea. Then $id is sent off to the Db object, presumably defined in lib/db.php, which we don’t have access to. Is it interacting with the database using mysqli or PDO (good), or is it sending $id raw in a mysql_query() call (terrible)? We don’t know, and it’s kind of a big deal.
Well, anyway, I pointed out these things along with several other issues in my “code review”. In total I ended up wasting about 3 hours going through this silly code with a fine toothed comb — far more time than I should have — just to make sure I identified every possible issue. Feeling confident I had done so, I sent back the code with my comments (a lot of them) and waited.
Step 3 – Douchey rejection email
Five days go by, then I get this:
Hi *****, thanks for completing the exam and for your patience while we got through all of the reviews. Movavi photo editor 5 7 – image editor software.
For this position we have the bar set very high, and unfortunately you haven’t placed among the top candidates.
Xteam V3 0 9 Digit
Thanks so much for your time and I wish you the best of luck in future.
Huh?
“Ouch”, I said to myself as soon as I read that. What’s their basis for saying I’m not a top candidate? I have 15 years of experience in PHP after all, so I do have *some* idea what I’m doing. If they disagree, I’d love to have known what they thought I’d missed, or how I could have done better in their eyes.
Xteam V3 0 9 Speed
But instead of that, they just insult me without any explanation? Really? Mr. Ambassador tried to build me up with praise at every turn, telling me my answers are some of the “best responses” he’s ever received…. and then they want to tear me down and tell me I’m not “among the top candidates”, just like that?
I’ve hired and fired people over the years, so I know it’s tough. I also know these things should be handled with a little tact. A better rejection letter would have been something like “Dear ****, Thank you for applying and taking our exam. I’m sorry to say we’ve decided to go with another candidate. We had several strong applications, including yours, but unfortunately only one job opening and we had to make a tough decision. Sorry again, but thank you for considering us. I will gladly keep you in mind if any other positions open up in the near future.”
Eazydraw 9 1 64. Even if none if it is true, that’s JUST WHAT YOU SAY.
Unless you’re a douchebag.
Or young and inexperienced with these kinds of things.
All during this time I was progressing through the hiring process for Toptal, which is just plain hard. Toptal makes a big deal about their rigorous hiring process, and the fact that they only hire the top 3% of developers.
Two days after the douchey rejection from X-Team, I got this message from Toptal:
Welcome to Toptal!
X-Team said they “set the bar very high”. I guess the top 3% isn’t high enough.
All X-Team ever did to assess my skills was one silly “mock code review”. Toptal, on the other hand, really put me through my paces. It was seriously the most difficult hiring process I’ve ever gone through for a programming job. I definitely had to earn my spot in the top 3%.
Read more about my Toptal experience here.
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