Vercel interview questions

I have worked for 3 large tech companies, 2 startups and currently run my own tech consultancy. In these roles I've done software engineering, devops, solutions architecture, engineering management and acted as CTO and CEO. Dealing with personalities is a natural part of a work environment. However, the shocking degree of rudeness would have been in violation of any HR policy, so I'm sharing my experience to the benefit of would be future employees. A recruiter reached out to me about a role, we scheduled some time and spoke on the generalities of the role. She told me she would book me with the hiring manager to schedule a technical assessment. I entered the call and was led with the question "Do you know who I am?" I said "No, I presume you are the hiring manager." The gentleman responded "Have you done any preperation for this?" It's obvious there has been some miscommunication over this, it seems as if this is some sort of assessment itself. I said "No, I believe I am speaking to the hiring manager." I look at the title of the Zoom call which is "Hiring Manager Interview with Vercel." The guy responds "Can you look up my name on the internet please?" I look him up, he's a senior director of field engineering. I start reading the description and he says "You don't need to read it out loud." He continues "I would think that if someone schedules 30 minutes of time on your calendar you would do some background research as to who they are and prepare accordingly." I respond "I was told that this was a call to schedule the upcoming technical assesment." He seemed agitated and says something along the lines of "Hmmm now how are we going to proceed here..." I responded "With all due respect, I don't think we have a cultural fit here so I'm going to end the call, thanks." He made some sort of remark and the call ended. Take from this what you well,.

I interviewed for the UK Senior Legal Counsel role and progressed through to the end of the panel interviews. I did not progress to an offer. At the top of the process I had the pleasure of meeting the recruiter, Jess Guenette. She arranged the initial call very soon after I submitted my application, was very friendly, clearly described the scope of the role and expectations from the candidates. Throughout the process, Jess was very responsive to any questions I had and was prompt in updating me at each stage. Superb recruitment experience. The interview process is challenging and does require a significant commitment of your time (to prep and also interview), so come prepared and expect to be put through your paces. I completely understand this approach, particularly given Vercel’s status as a unicorn/rocket-ship start-up (while also being somewhat established in the US). They are clearly looking for top-tier talent and will not compromise in the interest of getting bums on seats. The interview process has a total of six stages, if you include the recruiter screening too. I found the interviews engaging and the interviewers came across very friendly, were well prepared and punctual. The focus was on situational questions - “tell me about a time you…”. Although I did not go through to the final stage, the feedback email I received from Jess felt considered and personal to my experience, not an automated rejection. It landed well with me. Moreover, I requested some additional feedback for my own learning experience and Jess kindly obliged. Overall, while the process is challenging and requires your commitment, it felt well structured, purpose driven. My feedback in relation to this process would be: 1) that there may be one or two too many cooks in the kitchen. I believe that reducing the panel stage to one or two team members that you would work closes with should be sufficient in determining if a candidate is suitable; 2) try to avoid repeating similar questions from previous interviews; and 3) allow for the conversation to flow more naturally, as the questions felt quite scripted and it didn’t feel as though the interviewer or I could get our true personalities across.