Some good people but CTO Stanley was very disappointing.
I interviewed with Classlink in January 2024 for a technical position. I went through three rounds of interviews. First I met the recruiter and that went well. Next I met with a couple of developers. This was a great interview and we had a great discussion. They were excited about someone with experience and maturity being able to join the team. My final interview was with the CTO Stanley. I was excited and also a little nervous about meeting Stanley. I did my research as usual and learned that he had been the CTO for over 20 years and had not worked at any other company according to his linkedIn profile. This is typically a red flag for me based on past experiences of small business owners but it can also be a sign of dedication to a cause so I was curious and excited to learn more.
The video interview was disappointing from the beginning. Stanley was clearly expecting an interrogation style interview where he gets to ask the questions and I get to prove I have winning answers. He had not prepared for the interview as he was reading my resume after we started. Unfortunately I was hoping for a senior interview that was a discussion between experienced individuals who have learned there are no quick fix winning answers and prefer to start with asking lots of questions in a conversation before even thinking about solutions and answers. My attempts to learn more about the problems and challenges that I would work on was repeatedly met with several 1-2 word answers. My profiles showing that I've helped millions of people clearly meant nothing to him indicating a lack of trust and the belief that only he could vet someone technical.
Towards the end of the interview things started to go downhill fast. First I learned - somewhat accidentally - that the previous person in this role was fired by Stanley. The reason being that they argued with the staff too much. Red flag again. Then I learned that the company has the highest ratio of QA staff to developers of any company I have interviewed for, with details indicating large technical debt and outdated and broken development practices under Stanley's leadership and tenure. Finally Stanley wanted to give me an abstract puzzle homework assignment. One more red flag four for a senior developer with public profiles. I ended this process by sending an email, rejecting them. I've seen these dysfunctional patterns far too many times in other companies. Classlink might be good for a new college graduate but I would not recommend the company to people with real world experience. I've checked the company website several times over the past couple of months and notice that they continue to have the same positions open month after month without filling them which is a final red flag to me of a dysfunctional organization with poor leadership unable to bring in folks with experience.
