One word: disaster. First step was a “vba test”. I had to just write a macro that two datasets by common key in an hour. It was some holiday so recruiter decided to send me task and I just have to resend it by midnight. More time, good for me. I decided I will make use of it and go a bit deeper into task. I prepared two solutions, one quick and dirty and another clean, computationally optimal. Then I had first interview, general experience, motivation etc. Some VBA questions, which I partially answered, one was about syntax for early/late binding, my bad, could have reviewed more basic stuff but actually did not expected those kind of questions for such a post. Anyway there were questions answerd by google in the first link. Close to the end of interview, manager actually admitted the post name is different and it was just a bait to catch people with VBA. Ok never mind. We kept talking and at one point manager admitted that (quote) “if that was up to them they wouldn’t even conduct this interview”. That sounded a bit odd. Then we were scheduling the next interview, which was supposed to be practical. I thought we scheduled it to next day same time, and expected some mail with link to webex or anything, did not received so sent a mail with question. Firstly I was scheduled to next week. Then couple of hours later it was rescheduled almost three weeks ahead, to the period were I had a lot of work to do at current post. Ok, I got engaged into this process, that’s on my side, I’ll manage. Second interview. Two tasks, one writing, second debugging, one hour, everything squeezed into my schedule. First task, I wasn’t actually told that I had to write to, more like to explain what I would do, maybe write some pseudocode. I looked at the data, task, explained my solution and suggested moving to next task (to keep schedule and save OUR time). 25 min into interview and interviewers say they want me to code. So I wrote it more or less, not working yet but it was just debugging and cleaning left, most parts were there. Interviewer took a look, he wanted to explain some issue that he thought he found and was excited about and make one of the functions work, it was about declaring variables I think, anyway he looked surprised when function actually did complied and worked. Now it is about 45-50 min into interview, and I was just able to take a first glance on the second, debugging task. I looked at data, code, heard about context, story etc. It was a real example and It was working and broke down at some point. Well code does not gets rusty and it does not cracks per se, something changed against what author assumed. Code – nothing fancy, looping filter through pivot and saving to another file. I wanted to know what changed and started asking, I ask if the headers or structure of data changed, and then followed with anything changed within data. Manager answered that no, nothing changed. Fine, so I went back to data and code and kept asking questions, after couple of minutes I was without a clue. I wanted to read through whole code but it was a bit lengthy and it was already over an hour into interview (was scheduled to an hour), and it looked like we were nowhere near to complete it. Managers were trying to explain the data (wasn’t actually necessary), and pointed to some columns. I asked could we see the data that was input last time macro was working – “no”. It was about 1.5h of interview at that time. Managers changed strategy and started asking about solution to it, a quick and easy. How could I suggest any if we did not actually nailed the problem. Manager said it is so simple it can be done with three clicks. In the end both managers triumphantly explained the problem – columns of input dataset where shifted! Didn’t I asked about it like half an hour, 45 minutes ago? “No, you asked about headers”. We finished this ridiculous interview right before 2 hours mark. To sketch an atmosphere around, manager that was interviewing actually admitted that she was just promoted to a managerial position. It was really seen. Both interviewers were doing their staff during interview, not paying any attention, interrupting when they finally emerged from their world. I was on a quite a few Interviews, some went bad, some went good, but I did not had any interview where interviewers actually made laugh at you. It looked like they felt so superior and came there only to prove it and convince you are worthless. Both of them acted very amateur and unprofessional. But the behavior of interviewers went far beyond being inexperienced… seriously no comment, glad they had a good time, ‘cause they were laughing cheerfully. I felt like I was treated like sh!t, used as place filler or to pump up the stats. Worst interview ever. We will see if CEO will investigate or just click it to pump stats as well. Interviews took place in January and February, to post at polish office in Kraków, through webex.