I received a call from EY regarding an opportunity for a Java Developer position for one of their clients, ReBit. It was scheduled as a face-to-face round at Navi Mumbai, which I accepted. I reached around 11:30 a.m. and waited for a few minutes before being called in.
The first round was conducted in a cubicle. The interviewer seemed approachable. He glanced through my resume, asked a few questions, and then moved on to the technical part. I might have missed one or two questions, but overall, I answered most of them. There were a couple of simple questions I couldn’t recall at that moment, but the round went fairly well.
For the second round, I expected it to be more technical, but it turned out to be taken by a person who seemed to be in a managerial role. He went through my resume and had the habit of writing down notes during our conversation. He asked about my educational background, including my master’s degree, and questioned why I decided to pursue it again after working in research. I explained my reasons clearly.
Then, he asked me to explain the differences between Java, REST, and Microservices. I mentioned that I have used Java as a language, to which he responded that Java is a platform. For REST, I explained it as a communication method between client and server, including its full form, but he didn’t seem satisfied. For Microservices, I gave an example describing how a project can be divided into small, independent services, each with its own codebase. He then brought up SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), which I wasn’t familiar with, as I had mainly learned about monolithic and microservices architectures.
After that, he made a remark suggesting that despite having a master’s degree, my fundamentals weren’t strong. That comment affected me deeply. He also compared me to some of his friends with master’s degrees working abroad, which I felt was an unfair comparison. I calmly responded that it depends on when someone graduates, as the job market and industry expectations evolve over time.
He then asked about the difference between SOAP and XML, to which I responded, but I sensed that it wasn’t what he was expecting. He also asked a few scenario-based questions related to cloud technologies and MongoDB. Toward the end, he commented that my mind didn’t seem to be in the interview and concluded the session.
I left feeling extremely disappointed and emotionally drained. On my way home, I couldn’t hold back tears. Later, I contacted my point of contact at EY to share my feedback about the experience, as it was not what I had anticipated.
I’ve faced a few disappointing interviews in the past, but this was by far the most discouraging one. Perhaps it just wasn’t my day. While waiting earlier, I overheard another interviewer asking a candidate genuine technical questions—like the difference between authentication and authorization, and JWT in depth—which made me realize that my experience was quite different.
