QuickMail.io interview questions

The questionnaire on the application form was fun and interesting. I passed this stage and had one introduction interview with the CEO in which I didn’t pass. The job listings are upfront about how this job culture isn’t like most and that they appreciate “transparent candor”, but I did not imagine how intimidating and scary the CEO actually would be until we spoke. Perhaps it was just a test to filter out what he considers the “weak”? I found the questions confusing because he would frame it in a certain context and then “bait and switch you”. He certainly didn’t leave any room for understanding as he cut you off as soon as you didn’t say exactly what he had in mind. The questions also didn’t even have any context so it was extremely difficult to even form any decisions. For example, I was asked to pick out “what was good” from an email reply to a client without even seeing what the client asked in the first place. After stating what was good, he then asked me why he would be mad at seeing this reply. This was the bait and switch part that I felt I was tricked into, as at first the email was good and then it was later revealed that I was supposed to think it was bad. The questions asked simply just don’t reflect real life behaviours and I felt I didn’t have ample opportunity to showcase my skills, especially under the cold atmosphere. I remain curious and confused as to what answers were even expected and how the company would grow further with much black and whiteness. I was left feeling like there was something wrong with me but can now see from the other reviews that this kind of communication is standard here.

After an initial written screening that contained a variation of the "FizzBuzz" challenge, I was called to an initial interview with the founder and CEO. Right off the bat this individual starts acting like he doesn't care about you and like he's doing you a big favor by allowing you to be interviewed by him. I honestly wanted to drop out right after the initial small talk, but I kept going. Then he says "here's how this is going to work, I'm going to show you some code and you tell me everything you can about it, how does that sound?" and he shows you a code snippet that's instantly recognizable as a Sidekiq job. I read the code out loud describing what each line does. Then he says he's interrupting the process because "you're not the person we're looking for, so we don't want to waste any more of your time". All of this took about 10 minutes. Probably one of the craziest, worst interviews I've ever been a part of.