I had a 30-minute call with an HR representative who seemed pleasant but somewhat disengaged from the recruitment process. Following the call, I received a technical test via email along with some typical interview questions. One quirky query about a favorite Giphy was included, likely an attempt to showcase the company’s fun side. The questions were: Why are you interested in Reedsy's mission? When would you be available? Would it be full-time? Where are you based? Are you interested in a remote position? What are your rate or current salary expectations? What's your favorite Giphy? The technical test required a hefty 10 to 15+ hours of work, a demanding expectation for someone already employed full-time with other responsibilities. Despite this, I completed the assignment. The first part involved answering a series of questions, which I did correctly. However, I was criticized for my brevity and not producing lengthy, essay-like responses. The second part tasked me with recreating a layout using only CSS, based on a low-resolution JPEG. This felt like a junior-level task, and I was perplexed to find it included in a test for a senior position. I completed the task, but was nitpicked over minor discrepancies such as margins and border radii being slightly off, which seemed petty given the low quality of the JPEG provided. Another segment required using an API to create a microsite with both a list view and a page view. I applied a conventional architectural approach, which had been well-received elsewhere and even resulted in job offers from other companies for similar but significantly shorter tests. Here, though, my solution was met with harsh criticism about not spending enough time, linting rules not matching their preferred presets and alleged test failures—despite the tests functioning correctly. In conclusion, the experience was overwhelmingly negative and left me feeling grateful to have dodged a bullet. My advice to others would be to steer clear of applying to this company.

After applying I received an email with some questions about me and an assignment. The assignment contained some questions about past experience, some technical questions about Javascript and HTML, and 2 projects: one focused on HTML + CSS and the other one on creating an SPA. It took about two weekends and one or two hours every day after work during that week to complete the assignment, I'd say less than 30h in total, which is quite an effort but much better in my opinion than whiteboard interviews or the typical algorithms and data structure questions, and I was promised 500€ if I was hired, so there is a compensation for the effort. Two days after submitting my work I was asked to go through a few calls with several team members. They were three in total, one per week. In the first one I was asked to explain my previous experience, we quickly reviewed my assignment, I was asked a few more technical questions and then I got to ask them about the company. The other two calls were mostly to know other members of the team, but also had some technical questions and time for me to ask. My impression of the three calls was that they were more about seeing if I was a good fit for the team and how I communicate than checking my technical knowledge. In fact, I didn't know the answer to some of those questions but still got the job. A few days after the 3rd interview I got an offer, and in my first payroll, I was paid the promised 500€ for the assignment. The only "negative" thing for me about the process was not knowing what the roadmap would be. They didn't explain how many steps I had to go through and that uncertainty stressed me. The good thing is I let the CEO know about this and they adjusted the process to include that information.