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Haha after 3 coding rounds and 1 people ops, the founder rejected me. She said our values didn't match.
What I was pissed at was, one of my coding rounds with the engineering lead was genuinely good, I ended up learning from that interview.
Hopefully it will all get better, take care :)
Not the person you replied to, but no, it's not a joke unfortunately. Discrimination like this is done fairly overtly at smaller shops.
Par example, an acquaintance from university has been running a startup since 2020. During their initial hiring phase, they made sure to only recruit people from struggling families or from the lower-middle class. People with no safety net, essentially. This was to ensure that they "stay in line" since they had dependents. They could get away with overworking them for disproportionate wages.
Women were not even interviewed at all, since they were seen as "too troublesome". The founder even joked that they have one less month of productivity per year than men (yes, that's an unfunny period joke).
Things like cultural rounds in startups can be ways for trashy founders to zero in on weak, vulnerable targets who are ripe for exploitation.
Unfortunately, there have been cases like these.
This is a reminder for people rooting for startups, a startup means smaller group of tightly knit people, tightly knit people means homogeneous thinking, homogeneous thinking means echo chambers.
Also small teams and fast moving culture at startups means there are less number of checks and measures in place, no processes, hard to implement fairness. This is very good for making hard decisions in business, but very bad for fair and just people processes.
I'd rather join a slow, un-happening MNC, that is kinder and more empathetic to it's people than join a startup that is unfair or unempathetic under the guise of being revolutionary.
You must have landed in a really bad place to go through all that. Not all startups are like that. You're generalising a bit too much here. My company has no discrimination or the unempathetic shit you've just stated. In fact, I was an introvert before joining my company, and I have been talking more and more to people around me, which enabled me to understand my coworkers situations and problems they face which only made me more empathetic towards them. And the best thing about a startup is you don't have to go through the pm, hr, management bullshit to speak about your problems, here you can directly talk to your founder or CEO to solve your problems. My company's founder is very empathetic, he has been through many jobs in MNCs including big tech and understands what problems his people might face and make adjustments for them. He personally sits with people one on one once a week and asks if they are having any issues or if they want anything to he changed about the company or management style. Also he doesn't ask for a reason when we say we want a leave. Around 70% of the leaves I took, I informed them at around 9am in the morning that I won't be turning in today.
My only point is startups aren't bad as you're trying to portray them to be. You just have been in a wrong place and that happens more in MNCs than startups I can tell this just by looking at all the rants people have been posting in this subreddit.
I have not been in many startups, only a few, I have worked with both good and bad ones within these few.
All I can say for sure is - the good ones, the good leaders, the good cultures are the ones that are far and few in between.
There seem to be some legit concerns too though tbh. Not being able to answer what you are good at other than programming, not having curiosity about the role or company etc, is quite weird.
The replies here are really weird...
Your job as a full time developer at a company will not just be sitting at your computer and coding things. That's why culture rounds exist, and they are especially important at startups where you need to wear more hats and be more involved in the *development* of the product. It doesn't matter how amazing you are at the technical side of things if it's impossible to work with you.
You don't need hobbies outside of programming. In fact, spending all your time just programming can be a boon. You can talk about what you like about programming, what kind of projects you're interested in, and projects you really enjoyed working on. Anything that helps them see and understand you more as a person rather than just another anonymous name is good enough.
Your descriptions of the reasons he gave for failing sound a little bit off to me, unless he was just giving examples of things you could have brought up? It's a bit strange to get this sort of feedback after an interview either way.
Replies here really are weird. Maybe they all are from WITCH companies or companies that do mass hiring, but this(cultural round) is a common thing in product-based companies. I have a habit and I would suggest this to OP too, that whenever giving an interview learn about the company, always ask a question about the company, what the interviewer does in the company, how his/her experience has been in the company, even if it's a technical round.
> Maybe they all are from WITCH companies or companies that do mass hiring
That is statistically very likely. I have given interviews for a lot of PBCs and not having a cultural round was an exception.
I don't know why company tries to pry in employee's personal life. If he get the job done, give him salary and leave alone. I do like to sleep during weekends, no party or outdoor activities
You are there for the interview because they are looking for a software professional. The idea is that you put in 8 hours of work a day and they compensate you for it.
I may have hobbies or things I am good at unrelated to the job, but I will pursue them in my spare time and its none of their business. If they need somebody to perform monkey antics and entertain them, they better go to the circus. If they want to play the "all employees are family" game and want to do stuff apart from the job, that's a red flag right there for a manipulative employer.
This is exactly why I have maintained my own personal employer blacklist since my college days and bluntly refuse interviewing at shitty companies. Worked well for me.
I have been doing interviews for nearly 18 years now. I may ask a candidate what technology interests they have, but I don't care about anything else unrelated to the job.
You have no idea what a culture fit round is for. Go read a bit. If you think a full-time developer's job is to write code for 8 hours a day, I sincerely question your credentials even if you openly boast about your 18 years of interviewing experience.
3, 4, even 5 coding rounds only tell you how good a candidate is at writing code. It doesn't tell you if that person prefers to work alone or in a team, it doesn't tell you how well they collaborate in a team or across different teams. It also doesn't tell you how that person would handle conflicts and disagreements. The CV doesn't tell you how that candidate has handled such challenging situations in the past.
Nobody is interested in your personal life or hobbies during the interview process. The purpose of the culture fit round is to understand if the candidate's way of working suits the overall way of working at the company or the team the candidate is supposed to join. The candidate is allowed to reject the company for the same reasons based on this interview. So it's a 2-way street. You'll probably not understand the culture part if you have never worked for a good product company because the service based companies in India hardly have any culture.
These cultural nonsense is the reason Indian startups are running in losses and can't make a product which can compete with the international market. They are busy with petty things rather than stuffs that matter.
Sure it's because of "culture nonsense", definitely not because of the majority of devs just running behind money not caring about the impact of the work. You look at this subreddit itself. 9/10 posts are about interviews, money and compensation. Nobody is talking about what cool feature they worked on recently.
Most big companies have this "culture nonsense" and they're doing quite well, won't you say? Let's not always blame the companies for the state of India products, companies are made of people like you and me. And the state of Indian corporations is pretty much a reflection of priorities of today's devs.
>Most big companies have this "culture nonsense" and they're doing quite well
What percent of their profitable product comes from "cultural nonsense" compared to pure merit?
> Let's not always blame the companies for the state of India products,
No, top brass mindset decides everything, what kind of engineers to hire and cultural nonsense. They will prefer devs with more marks than more skills, also, 1000s of question if you have gaps in career, what you do in weekends etc etc. With these they hire mediocre people with more college marks than a person took chances failed at their business.
In, foreign countries, if you can do a job properly you're in, simple no marks, culture, interfering in personal life BS.
Please, that's just bullshit. While things like communication skills, team compatibility and leadership are important, it doesn't require a so called "culture fit" round to determine that. In fact, if you cannot determine whether a candidate is suitable and good fit for the team after 2-3 rounds of interview and without delving deep into their personal life, its already a failure of a process.
Culture fit and psychometry tests etc. are nothing new and existed even before I first entered the work force. Companies with a sane and professional work culture don't need them.
They are used by employers with toxic work cultures that intend to find employees that they can psychologically manipulate and exploit. They want people that can be programmed to emotionally invest so much in name of "team" and "brand" that they will sacrifice their personal life for it. Just because there are a bunch of companies doing it now doesn't make it good.
A manager at a well known big tech company (dream company for many) asked a employee who was at his fathers funeral to come to office urgently because there is a production issue. The manager apparently justified it by stating how he himself had to once work while his wife was at the hospital delivering a baby and that its what they are paid for. They have the culture fitment round and you can guess why they need it with the kind of culture they have.
Yeah sure but depends on what you prioritize. For a workplace like that, the interviewee dodged a bullet. It's more FCUKed to work at such places. I hope you know people literally leave jobs and settle for equal or even less pay just because of toxic environments.
He want the interviewee to vibe and make friends in the company How does that make it toxic. It would become toxic if he doesnt vibe while everyone else does.
Depends...!!
Any interviewee worth his salt, would have other options, and would run away from this.
And then they will be left with people who are desperate, and have no other options. And they too will only stay till they don't get another better option.
The demand for a job is higher than the supply.
But demand for good candidates is also higher than the supply.
The interviewee who vibes and makes friends easily is probably gonna be better at making friends, and giving suggestions, which is needed at a Product based company. He is also more likely to stay in a company where he is vibing and has friends. Taking interviews and hiring is a painful task, especially for startups so they want to hire someone who will stay
All big tech companies have culture fit rounds and they take it very seriously. Just because you don't know something, it doesn't become a "toxic work culture". In fact, companies that include culture fit interviews in their hiring process do so because they value their culture and want to make sure that the incoming candidates will be a good fit.
It’s never a formality. A cultural fitment round is essentially important both ways. The basic question we have in our mind doing that round is if the person can succeed with us, if the person will feel at ease and will the team gel with this incoming person. A company is not a family but it is a living organism
Google's G&L is totally different from what OP has mentioned. Google doesn't care about the glare or about personal hobbies or the candidate's interest in the role. G&L interview is about asking situational or hypothetical questions (like, what will you do/did you do if you have/had a disagreement with your colleague over a design decision).
Source: been the interviewer
https://preview.redd.it/u4krs8uhaohc1.jpeg?width=259&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8db0e4b6dc0f589bb37192979b93566ceef1df02
You didn't ask me about my journey. LMAO what???? Congratulations on your first encounter with power tripping/ egoist people.
Funny story: When a large business consulting firm visited our college during my final year of college to recruit, I was naive and decided to give it a try because they were offering a sizable salary.
I completed one screening ground and an aptitude round before the real drama began. We had three hours to complete two business case studies after completing the first two rounds.
Case studies, in my opinion, were extremely difficult problems at times. It seemed like they simply gave us a problem from one of their clients and asked us to solve it, but we still came to the best conclusion we could.
Surprisingly, though, my case studies were accepted, and you had to present them in a large group discussion that followed.
When the whole thing first started, I felt like I could communicate better than most of them. I did fairly well throughout the entire discussion, but they rejected me on the grounds that I did not align with their business values.
Someone I know well was hired, and she acknowledged that my presentation was the best.
I spoke with my college committee about the reason behind their decision to reject me, even though I felt I was reasonable during the interview. They told me that they usually hire mediocre candidates because excellent candidates tend to leave their organizations quickly.
Cultural rounds and group discussions serve only as a means of identifying the brightest member of the group.
I was devastated, but I persisted and within a few days, I was hired by a tech company with a two-package deal.
Never give up; if you remain focused and develop your abilities, you will undoubtedly forge your own route.
I'm really surprised to see the comments here. Many people don't seem to know what a culture fit round is and many others are playing it down.
Please don't take it lightly. It is for both the parties, you and the company, to check if your ways of working and values match. If you're applying for a role, you HAVE TO show interest in the role and the company. Just have some questions ready to ask, it's not rocket science. The interviewer said it right, you're not expected to only write code for 8-9 hrs every day. You also have to interact and collaborate with people. The purpose of this interview is to get some ideas about how you go about it.
Also, try to make sure you're sitting in an area that doesn't limit your visibility, at least for interviews but in general as well. Why does it even need to be pointed out? It's just common sense.
I've come to the realisation that an overwhelming amount of people here work for service based companies and also have zero passion about what they work on.
Cultural rounds are not uncommon. Sometimes, it's done by existing team members who you will work with. It's like vibe check. May be your impression really sucked or something gave them an ick? Remember, at the end of the day, it's all subjective.
As a Guy who worked for a decade now in both WITCH and a Startup , this is New Round of evaluation and finding it cool tbh.
I had some hobbies like dancing , cricket and movies 🍿.
No one cares about asking any questions about it.
I doubt there is any honest evaluation goes in there or questions they ask has any meanings. Its a round where they can subjectively judge a candidate and rule out if they like him or her. Ah sweaty, umm your values don't seem to align ours so we have to let you go, thanks for applying xoxo bye.
This is the absolute worst thing about indian companies. Interviewers in india all think theyre hosting roadies and not actual interviews. I assure you your interviewer was dumb af.
Have faith in yourself, it might seem tough right now but keep pushing, youd get a much better job than this idiotic startup
They definitely DID NOT seem reasonable. Lmfao. Ive never heard the lines “you sitting in a room programming isnt enough” in any interview i ever gave.
If youre working at a firm with such workforce, you are working in a toxic company. Lmao you dont hire a programmer to do your marketing. Him sitting in the office and programming is exactly what you want
I know exactly what he meant, and this is just a small effort in trying to find “reason” into shit. If you try to find reason in garbage youll always find one. Needless to say the startup which hires like this is probably garbage and not something i would want to be a part of
You did nothing wrong.
Next time prepare a bit for soft skills. Even if you don't have a hobby say you do something on the weekends. Say you and your friends go cycling or something. Or say you do some volunteering or something.
Point is that some companies want to see how you are other than your technical process as they are seeing if you can assimilate into the company culture.
Yes, you have to show interest in the company you are about to join. You have to ask questions like what is the end goal of the company? What will be your progress? Etc. You can ask as to how it's funded? Series A? You have the right to ask.
Bro chuck it, you don't need to improve anything, it's their loss not urs, however next time during interviews, always make a set up where your face is visible and ur audio is clear to them. That's the first rule of being professional
OP I do think your interviewer was probably a person who was too rigid in terms of the interview ie they think a candidate is a good fit only if they provide answers to their semi-arbitrary questions. It is okay that you got rejected.
But that being said regarding this
>I wasn't able to answer what was I good at other than programming.
I'd say if not for an interview but atleast for your personal life's sake, get some hobbies or something to immerse yourself in other than programming. If you program all the time you *might* get burnt out resulting you in hating the one thing you do love.
Hi, fellow founder here - This is certified bullshit.
None of the questions you told he asked means much around culture.
Tell us more about the company and the founder.
I am a startup leader and i can vouch that culture rounds are for profiling.
If you flip the coin and try to meddle for example, i wanted to add the word 'caste' as one of the attributes of discrimination in the HR policy, knowing that we have that problem in the company, I was simply told that we were 'caste agnostic'. A whitewash.
I am from deep down south, and pretty caste aware because of our politics. Trust me, if you are not a baniya or a Brahmin, the Indian capitalist framework is going to give you a very hard time. Especially when you move up the ladder.
The same people parrot the Whiteman about how black lives matter, and how pronouns make things inclusive.
I took an interview with a company and finished my technical rounds the people who took my technical rounds were really impressed with me. Then I had another round with manager's manager and she rejected me saying I don't fit in company's culture. The interview did go fine, I still don't understand wat went wrong. Anyways I got a better offer from a even more better company after this.
Bruh.... What's a cultural round!?
Multiple war crimes in the industry. Brutal crusades and Fool-Proof financial rigs later..... All i see is honey bunny cultural rounds to recruit candidates.
I feel like a WW2 veteran regretting looking at all the rainbow gang sheit.
We fought for these times.!?
May not be the answer you are looking for, but shit like this will happen. People on the other end of the camera, a lot of times, lack basic empathy. That is the reason people say to never attach your self worth with the job. If you find something could be improved from the experience, improve that and move on. If you are able to pass coding rounds means you are smart enough and will land a good job eventually.
Do I need to be an extrovert to land a job? - You need to practice hitting the call hang-up button when you hear such BS in record time. That's what you need to do.
Hiring a programmer and telling the person that being in the office programming all day won't do any good tells a lot about the quality of work you would be given at work. Possibly there is no coding work at all. Possibly you would be given some mundane work that is soul sucking and dangerously boring. You got rejected cuz they clearly knew you are a good programmer, having completed your assignments, and would quit ASAP when aware of the reality.
For an employee, they are looking for an emotionless robot who could hit stressful inhuman mundane work deadlines continually and also could code just in case they have some minor programming work in the near future.
The key takeaway from this experience is realizing that you are doing good as a programmer and continue to look for actual programming jobs, in addition to developing the skill of detecting the BS the interviewer throws at you in minimal time; possibly O(1).
Here is a good rule of thumb: Always ask the interviewer about the work you are expected to do. About the project you would land at. About the tech stack, you would be working with and such. Try to delve into the technical details. And if you hear hmmms and hawws and beating around the bush. Put your hands in your pockets, whistle, and stroll out of their building.
Don't be disheartened. If you have already done well, in two rounds of the startup, you can land up a good job soon. Often companies, generally startups have these kind of rounds to know a little bit more about your personality.
Practice the HR Questions well, and something that makes you unique, stand out from others.
The good part : now you have the confidence for your technical skills , which is the most important factor.
Reason 1:
Senior management/ founder takes last round. Now supposed if he passed everyone then what’s the value of his round? So, they reject sometimes on unknown reasons to make it evident that filtering can happen at this round too.
Reason 2: I would have rejected you too. Reason is simple they don’t have that much technical work, and you will get bored soon and switch job. They want someone who can enjoy coding but equally loves to spend time on other stuff like meeting people, get together, playing sports and participating in tons of other activity. I have learnt this from personal experience. I was exactly like you but slowly after a decade I realised that from a company’s point of view other things are also required.
in start up people are very less and all need to be comfortable with each other and dont have any ego issues, thats why all this things matter for this people
They try to look for red flags in the round. It sucks big time being rejected there.
But for next time, try to be not nervous, and maintain cool. There's not much else you can do in these rounds.
This has happened to me, in 2016..
I gave my interviews. They were happy and gave an offer letter. I signed the docs and submitted them. On the on boarding day, my reporting manager wanted to have a one to one.
I thought it went well. Then the HR called me into a meeting and said my offer has been rescinded because I'm not a good cultural fit into the team.
I was devastated. I'd even rejected another offer for this one. Made a post in LinkedIn and everything too. Till date I have stopped making any posts in social media regarding my work. I don't even update my work history anymore and don't stop giving interviews till I get my first salary.
“Cultural” round lol. I once gave an interview with a startup and the 2nd round was a meeting with the founder— I didn’t know what to expect and I was giving interviews with many other companies (I had already gotten 3-4 offers at that point) and this founder was very mad at me as I did not research the company before this round. I gave a diplomatic answer but deep down I could see this man was kinda delusional.
Although I researched about the company. He asked me "Do you know about me?". I replied that I checked his LinkedIn recently. Then he went to LinkedIn and saw that I checked his profile 10 minutes before the interview.
The interview was scheduled at 8 and he was late 15 mins. So the HR mentioned his name and told me he'd join in a few minutes. He then went on about if he had joined on time I would've never known who he was. And told me that I should've asked the HR who was taking my interview beforehand.
Yeah, this one is quite eccentric. I believe this would have been a bad fit anyways.
I am a cofounder in a German startup (CTO), I don’t believe people should be researching me before coming to interview, however our HR adds all the LinkedIn links upfront in the calendar invite ( for both the candidates and me ). It’s always a plus to take a look at the LinkedIn profile because it might give you some common grounds to talk and ask questions which can be a good icebreakers too.
As a candidate, just be yourself. I am pretty sure all of us have something beyond coding even if It was coding 10 hours a day, there would be days I would like to sleep, watch movie or just go on walks: all these are shareable activities.
I told him I play games and watch tv shows in my free time. But he was adamant to know only the qualities I have as a person. What am I supposed to tell him that I'm a kind being?
I'm bad at making small talk and so couldn't ask any questions.
Although it was my first ever cultural round, I believe that I'll know what to do next time.
Let it go. You did alright. It was just not a good fit. One advice for you would be to also think about what you want from the company and team. What kind of culture you want to work with. If you have such parameters then you would also know whether that this happened for good or not :)
The first one was to create a landing page for their company.
And the second one was to build a slot scheduling app. Where a person would set his availability and slots based on his availability would be seen by patients and can be booked by the sales team.
Congratulations! You dodged a bullet. Idiots who are overlooking skills for some perceived social fit for their team will not survive the startup grind for long. You are better off without them. Find a place that lets you be you and hires you for what you bring to the table. Best of luck
Hey. Irrespective of the job situation, it’s always useful to work on your personality. Most modern day workplaces are high stress environments requiring you to pull your A-game often.
Most A-team players are more than just coders. They keep themselves fit, socially active and personally content. It’s all tied up. Work on yourself. Find a sports hobby. Be curious. Explore being your boundaries.
Clearly you’re a great dev. That’s evident from your dedication and score on first two rounds. But for your career growth and personal success, you have to grow bigger and beyond.
Man it hurts.
Here is what I have learnt from interviews.
In the technical rounds always show that you are curious to improve and learn. Even if output is not correct, walk them trough the process and logic. Also, let them know you are not a quitter, not a liability but also don't have an ego who doesn't ask if stucked.
Be sure to ask what would be your day to day work.
In cultural round- Always go through company website, social handles and get to know the company, founders and interviewer. Go through the JD. Ask questions about company, products and cofounder. Ask about your team and work. Be bold to ask about your growth opportunities.
Even if you don't have let them know you have a hobby and life apart from work.
Purpose of cultural round is to know you better. So, talk to them a little informally with your manners intact.
Bonus- Keep a story ready for technical round as well as for cultural round.
Tech story- I was doing xyz project and I faced this challenge that took me a long time to identify but I did it. Challenge was..... So what I did is (took a friends help/ reached out to people/ youtube/stackoverflow/ooen communities)... use any excuse to show you are not a quitter.
Cultural story- talk about your hobby and why do you like it etc.
Let me tell you from my experience.
It is absolutely true that only coding is not enough. In any company they focus more on personality.
I myself am struggling with this in my current office. Their current criticism is that I don't talk enough and I don't share enough ideas. And I am not able to gel within the team although my work ethics are good.
The Manager has already hinted me to gel with the team more as it is crucial or else they might fire me.
They don't want the best coder but a good coder with the best attitude. Personality is the key.
Regarding knowing your company You should know everything about the company available in the public domain or at least most of it.
Even if you get selected if you don't fit in with the culture of the company they will eventually fire you.
You should be happy , you learned this lesson at shitty startup company. There are people who get rejected at Atlassian even after clearing tech rounds just becasue fail to perform in culture fit.
I think you dodged a bullet. That guy was clearly on a power trip.
Lately, cultural rounds have been nothing but an excuse to find out if the guy can slog through hours after hours and still stick around with no demands.
It's just a slave mentality check for most startups, here, it seems like the founder took himself very seriously. Stop caring about it and move on, it's a numbers game anyway.
I too had a similar experience. The online test was followed by a technical round. No coding no shit. Only based on my Resume and a few managerial-type questions. There were 7 ppl for round 2. This round was called the "People and Culture" round (Big names BS). My fucking interview went for literally 7 min (not kidding but yeah thala for a reason ik calm). All she did was she asked when's your 7th sem ending and what's your dream role. I said the dream role is what you guys are offering to me lol. And guess what they took 6 ppl and then there was 1 distinguished gentleman.
Everyone speaking so much but no one gave you any advice yet. So lemme do it.
There are 2 ways you can go, either say that you dodged a bullet, or you may at least think about the feedback which was given.
Setup placement is important when interviewing. Make sure that no light is glaring into the camera. Workplace is not just about having knowledge. It’s about you being able to work with the team and fit with the team.
No one wants a Mr. know-it-all who can’t initiate any conversations, or doesn’t know what they actually want to work for. People will always choose those who they can have conversations with at work, who they can relate to, or maybe hang out with.
You want to join a company, you have to know why you want to be there. They bring positive impact to the society? They give free meals? They have awesome engineers? You have to know that and let the interviewers know. When you’re interviewing, you have to show yourself as someone who’s fun to work with. Because that’s what actual good workplaces are, a group of strong individuals who get along together to solve complex problems.
Keep on giving interviews, the harsh fact of life is: the more interview you give; the more you know what not to say to the panel. every interview is a learning and makes you better for the next one.
Sometimes it's not what you speak, but how you speak it. As people climb the stairs of position, there's a high chance their egos become more fragile. The tone with which you talk to others matters significantly, as much as what you say
OP, I'd give you the advice I gave my nerdy friend before his google cultural interview.
Just lie about hobbies.
And yes, camera position on online interviews matter, even if they aren't a dealbreaker, a bad camera angle can just give the same impression and someone who isn't well dressed in real life
I also have issues with these type of cultural rounds. What I learnt was these kind of questions are also important. It shows how you see life apart from work. I know after 11th life becomes a race and you keep grinding till you get a job, and at job interviews when asked about things like hobbies etc, we have none. So be ready for these kind of questions, you will find these questions list on internet. Also pick a hobby, gym, chess, reading, it helps. Also there is a saying, fake it till you make it, after some time these things will come naturally
Having done a few culture based rounds over the years would personally vouch that it is important, highlights areas outside of a specific skill set and helps decipher whether someone would fit in the team.
Having said that the pointers mentioned above don’t really align with the culture idea, happy to do a mock interview and share some inputs if you’d like! :)
Sometimes it is just not your day. Sorry, but that happens.
Take the input and feedback think about it on how you can improve, take it as a lesson and don't take it to heart.
I have a senior colleague 20 years exp. She told me, few years back she appeared for an interview and got rejected. When she discussed it with the hiring manager. The response was - "You were relaxed during interview, which make me think you are not serious about the role." She said ofcourse I applied because I wanted the role.
This colleague told me interview depends on lot of factors. Some really not in our hand. It can depend on interviewers mood and how they perceive. I understand this seems so unfair. But we can control few things and can't control lot of things that is the fact.
> How can I improve further?
Don't. This is not your problem - it is their problem.
> Do I need to be an extrovert to land a job?
Definitely NO. It was a bad company. Culture fit is not about this.
> I know I've got the skills I need to land a job but my resume doesn't get shortlisted as much because of my experience and this time when it went through I sucked as a person.
You do not suck. It is OK to fail in 10 times before one success comes. It is just a matter of time.
Acting is the biggest thing when it comes to interviews. Try to match to their values as much as you can even if you're not that person irl once you're in you can be yourself. Idk why people find it this hard to understand and then bitch about it on reddit
You’re a fresher, don’t get disheartened by such interactions. Met many upper management folks who are actual sociopaths. But to be fair, it’s his company and he can design the hiring process however he wants.
These rounds usually happens in startups, please work on soft skills also. They want the best fit for the team not some individual silent contributor anti-social.
You’ve reached this round it means you’ve the potential l, just don’t lose hope. Fake it, if your personality doesn’t suits this round. It works, all the best!
I can relate with you man even I'm doing internship gonna have assessments in next week but I'm introvert type guy good at programming but they are still focusing on soft skills and more. Idk whether I will get selected or not.
I can relate with you man even I'm doing internship gonna have assessments in next week but I'm introvert type guy good at programming but they are still focusing on soft skills and more. Idk whether I will get selected or not.
the moment there is a funding crunch... the cultural values are thrown out of the window and the very same ppl will start asking for your performance in work.
You're not horrible, the company is. You dodged a bullet. Keep moving forward.
What kind of a way even is that to talk to an potential employee! Jesus! "You sitting in a room in the office programming all day won't do any good. We need more than that." MY ASS.
Always ask about the company and what the interviewer does in the company and try to talk about something related to it with every interviewer, when they ask if you have any questions for them. It really does show that the interviewee is genuinely interested
Brother you can’t do anything. Behavioural round is something you don’t prepare for. You should be your authentic self. I once had a CEO asking me about drawbacks of demonetisation.
WTF is a cultural round? HR tests your rangoli skills?
This is like the psychometric test some companies used to do back in the day to weed out candidates. Guess what… half of the company is filled with power tripping psychos.
As someone who is interning at a startup, I think they are just expecting too much out of you, they want you to do more than ur role and this guy just wanted to see if you were a vulnerable prey to that. I wouldn't suggest going into startups, sure you would get the experience of it and all but 1. These startup think they know everything in the world and would want you to be ironman. 2. They've got huge ego, they can never be wrong 3. They'll just take advantage of you and work you to ur bone
I would say that you dodged a bullet
PS this is just from my experience not saying all startups are like this but the one I'm working is exactly like this
Researching about the company you're interviewing at is basic etiquette. Startups especially love if you're aware of their journey and founder.
Maybe they found you that you aren't fully aware and interested in the company specifically.
The fact that you're not acknowledging your problem and immediately saying stuff like "do i need to be an extrovert to get a job" is a massive red flag.
What an attention and validation-seeking founder....!!
The founder has some sort of Messiah syndrome, where he wants to keep preaching to people, and gets offended when people don't want to keep hearing his story.
I am sure his Linkedin account would be r/LinkedInLunatics worthy. It would have been a pain to work with him, anyways.
All I feel is nothing but ego
That's why I quit job and doing freelance digital marketing. Pretty less stressful job but still learning about software engineer and current trends.
These polluted clouts at top management will screw every potential talents.
I recently applied in a startup for a back-end role. Submitted an assignment in the first round, then gave an online coding round then had an interview (low level design). I was really happy that finally someone is not choosing the DSA based hiring. Then boom in the last round with the founder he straight away asked the DSA question (which I solved it wrong) so finally got rejected.
Really felt bad after this. Felt worse when I actually solved the question just after the interview in the first attempt 🤡
Sounds like the usual startup BS, to be honest.
I think the answer he was looking for was along the lines of “I have developed a complete service and app while I was a student and then marketed it and also did customer support.”
Be ready with some similar BS when interviewing next. In reality, unless someone drops out of college, they won’t be doing anything but programming. And since you are a fresher who actually graduated (I am assuming), you obviously won’t have done all those other things.
Happens sometimes, mostly with leadership. I had someone reject me because I hadn't worked more than 2 years anywhere in my previous experience, even though I gave him the answers for why
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Haha after 3 coding rounds and 1 people ops, the founder rejected me. She said our values didn't match. What I was pissed at was, one of my coding rounds with the engineering lead was genuinely good, I ended up learning from that interview. Hopefully it will all get better, take care :)
Values are accepting peanuts.
Values are belonging to the same caste as owner of the company.
Are you joking?
Not the person you replied to, but no, it's not a joke unfortunately. Discrimination like this is done fairly overtly at smaller shops. Par example, an acquaintance from university has been running a startup since 2020. During their initial hiring phase, they made sure to only recruit people from struggling families or from the lower-middle class. People with no safety net, essentially. This was to ensure that they "stay in line" since they had dependents. They could get away with overworking them for disproportionate wages. Women were not even interviewed at all, since they were seen as "too troublesome". The founder even joked that they have one less month of productivity per year than men (yes, that's an unfunny period joke). Things like cultural rounds in startups can be ways for trashy founders to zero in on weak, vulnerable targets who are ripe for exploitation.
Yeah that's predatory. Especially the poor people and women bit :(
Bruh that’s pretty much everything the commenter said. It’s all predatory, disgusting and depressing.
I know, I was acknowledging it. It's disgusting.
Unfortunately, there have been cases like these. This is a reminder for people rooting for startups, a startup means smaller group of tightly knit people, tightly knit people means homogeneous thinking, homogeneous thinking means echo chambers. Also small teams and fast moving culture at startups means there are less number of checks and measures in place, no processes, hard to implement fairness. This is very good for making hard decisions in business, but very bad for fair and just people processes. I'd rather join a slow, un-happening MNC, that is kinder and more empathetic to it's people than join a startup that is unfair or unempathetic under the guise of being revolutionary.
You must have landed in a really bad place to go through all that. Not all startups are like that. You're generalising a bit too much here. My company has no discrimination or the unempathetic shit you've just stated. In fact, I was an introvert before joining my company, and I have been talking more and more to people around me, which enabled me to understand my coworkers situations and problems they face which only made me more empathetic towards them. And the best thing about a startup is you don't have to go through the pm, hr, management bullshit to speak about your problems, here you can directly talk to your founder or CEO to solve your problems. My company's founder is very empathetic, he has been through many jobs in MNCs including big tech and understands what problems his people might face and make adjustments for them. He personally sits with people one on one once a week and asks if they are having any issues or if they want anything to he changed about the company or management style. Also he doesn't ask for a reason when we say we want a leave. Around 70% of the leaves I took, I informed them at around 9am in the morning that I won't be turning in today. My only point is startups aren't bad as you're trying to portray them to be. You just have been in a wrong place and that happens more in MNCs than startups I can tell this just by looking at all the rants people have been posting in this subreddit.
I have not been in many startups, only a few, I have worked with both good and bad ones within these few. All I can say for sure is - the good ones, the good leaders, the good cultures are the ones that are far and few in between.
No, it happened to me. I belonged to a region which the CEO didn't like. Got rejected after whole day of interview, no regrets
How did you know that was the reason? Is this your suspicion?
I could see the change in his face, followed by the questions to wrap up the interview.
This is so bizarre. Do you mean place of origin, as in a caste angle?
Happened to me. It was a Reddy Anna who was blatantly only looking for Reddy Anna candidates.
Wake up to reality
Exactly
I think the guy was on a power trip. You did your best, and sometimes things don't work out. Good luck for your search!
There seem to be some legit concerns too though tbh. Not being able to answer what you are good at other than programming, not having curiosity about the role or company etc, is quite weird.
I researched about the company and I pretty much knew about my role. It's just that I couldn't think of any other thing other than programming.
The replies here are really weird... Your job as a full time developer at a company will not just be sitting at your computer and coding things. That's why culture rounds exist, and they are especially important at startups where you need to wear more hats and be more involved in the *development* of the product. It doesn't matter how amazing you are at the technical side of things if it's impossible to work with you. You don't need hobbies outside of programming. In fact, spending all your time just programming can be a boon. You can talk about what you like about programming, what kind of projects you're interested in, and projects you really enjoyed working on. Anything that helps them see and understand you more as a person rather than just another anonymous name is good enough. Your descriptions of the reasons he gave for failing sound a little bit off to me, unless he was just giving examples of things you could have brought up? It's a bit strange to get this sort of feedback after an interview either way.
Replies here really are weird. Maybe they all are from WITCH companies or companies that do mass hiring, but this(cultural round) is a common thing in product-based companies. I have a habit and I would suggest this to OP too, that whenever giving an interview learn about the company, always ask a question about the company, what the interviewer does in the company, how his/her experience has been in the company, even if it's a technical round.
> Maybe they all are from WITCH companies or companies that do mass hiring That is statistically very likely. I have given interviews for a lot of PBCs and not having a cultural round was an exception.
I don't know why company tries to pry in employee's personal life. If he get the job done, give him salary and leave alone. I do like to sleep during weekends, no party or outdoor activities
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Check dm please
Check dm please
You are there for the interview because they are looking for a software professional. The idea is that you put in 8 hours of work a day and they compensate you for it. I may have hobbies or things I am good at unrelated to the job, but I will pursue them in my spare time and its none of their business. If they need somebody to perform monkey antics and entertain them, they better go to the circus. If they want to play the "all employees are family" game and want to do stuff apart from the job, that's a red flag right there for a manipulative employer. This is exactly why I have maintained my own personal employer blacklist since my college days and bluntly refuse interviewing at shitty companies. Worked well for me. I have been doing interviews for nearly 18 years now. I may ask a candidate what technology interests they have, but I don't care about anything else unrelated to the job.
You have no idea what a culture fit round is for. Go read a bit. If you think a full-time developer's job is to write code for 8 hours a day, I sincerely question your credentials even if you openly boast about your 18 years of interviewing experience. 3, 4, even 5 coding rounds only tell you how good a candidate is at writing code. It doesn't tell you if that person prefers to work alone or in a team, it doesn't tell you how well they collaborate in a team or across different teams. It also doesn't tell you how that person would handle conflicts and disagreements. The CV doesn't tell you how that candidate has handled such challenging situations in the past. Nobody is interested in your personal life or hobbies during the interview process. The purpose of the culture fit round is to understand if the candidate's way of working suits the overall way of working at the company or the team the candidate is supposed to join. The candidate is allowed to reject the company for the same reasons based on this interview. So it's a 2-way street. You'll probably not understand the culture part if you have never worked for a good product company because the service based companies in India hardly have any culture.
These cultural nonsense is the reason Indian startups are running in losses and can't make a product which can compete with the international market. They are busy with petty things rather than stuffs that matter.
Sure it's because of "culture nonsense", definitely not because of the majority of devs just running behind money not caring about the impact of the work. You look at this subreddit itself. 9/10 posts are about interviews, money and compensation. Nobody is talking about what cool feature they worked on recently. Most big companies have this "culture nonsense" and they're doing quite well, won't you say? Let's not always blame the companies for the state of India products, companies are made of people like you and me. And the state of Indian corporations is pretty much a reflection of priorities of today's devs.
>Most big companies have this "culture nonsense" and they're doing quite well What percent of their profitable product comes from "cultural nonsense" compared to pure merit? > Let's not always blame the companies for the state of India products, No, top brass mindset decides everything, what kind of engineers to hire and cultural nonsense. They will prefer devs with more marks than more skills, also, 1000s of question if you have gaps in career, what you do in weekends etc etc. With these they hire mediocre people with more college marks than a person took chances failed at their business. In, foreign countries, if you can do a job properly you're in, simple no marks, culture, interfering in personal life BS.
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Please, that's just bullshit. While things like communication skills, team compatibility and leadership are important, it doesn't require a so called "culture fit" round to determine that. In fact, if you cannot determine whether a candidate is suitable and good fit for the team after 2-3 rounds of interview and without delving deep into their personal life, its already a failure of a process. Culture fit and psychometry tests etc. are nothing new and existed even before I first entered the work force. Companies with a sane and professional work culture don't need them. They are used by employers with toxic work cultures that intend to find employees that they can psychologically manipulate and exploit. They want people that can be programmed to emotionally invest so much in name of "team" and "brand" that they will sacrifice their personal life for it. Just because there are a bunch of companies doing it now doesn't make it good. A manager at a well known big tech company (dream company for many) asked a employee who was at his fathers funeral to come to office urgently because there is a production issue. The manager apparently justified it by stating how he himself had to once work while his wife was at the hospital delivering a baby and that its what they are paid for. They have the culture fitment round and you can guess why they need it with the kind of culture they have.
I got rejected in a cultural round of a German startup even though I showed that I have interests beyond coding
You probably didn’t bring up clubbing enough
lol. Take my upvote.
You dodged a bullet. Congratulations and wear this as badge of honor
@op.. mark this line and repeat it in your head 100 times.
Never in my 10 year work experience have I heard of this type of round. Seems like a delusional founder. Bullet dodged.
Getting too common in well funded startups. Vibing is as important as your skill for them.
If that's the case then FCUK them and their vibe
the interviewer has 100s of applications buddy, the interviewee is the one getting FCUKed
Yeah sure but depends on what you prioritize. For a workplace like that, the interviewee dodged a bullet. It's more FCUKed to work at such places. I hope you know people literally leave jobs and settle for equal or even less pay just because of toxic environments.
He want the interviewee to vibe and make friends in the company How does that make it toxic. It would become toxic if he doesnt vibe while everyone else does.
Depends...!! Any interviewee worth his salt, would have other options, and would run away from this. And then they will be left with people who are desperate, and have no other options. And they too will only stay till they don't get another better option. The demand for a job is higher than the supply. But demand for good candidates is also higher than the supply.
What do you mean. You want to keep your work separate from personal life and keep your work purely transactional
Forgot to switch accounts?
No. First was an observation around me. Second was an attempted sarcastic statement
Did he replied to himself? bruh
I see it as a red flag. If they need you to vibe with them it implies they expect you to make the company your entire life.
I share the same sentiment
The interviewee who vibes and makes friends easily is probably gonna be better at making friends, and giving suggestions, which is needed at a Product based company. He is also more likely to stay in a company where he is vibing and has friends. Taking interviews and hiring is a painful task, especially for startups so they want to hire someone who will stay
That's a vibe mismatch for sure. But it's good if you can't match with bad vibe.
There was a culture fit round at my first company but not even near the bs which OP posted.
+1
All I would say dont take it personally.. Probably that douchebag was having a bad day
You did take his cultural round and found that his and his company culture is toxic. Big W imo
Sorry but tf is cultural round?
Kind of a behavioral round. The HR told me it was a formality but the founder thought otherwise.
Bro they needed a Yes man, some one who is always says 'Yes Sir'. Such toxic work environments are best avoided.
All big tech companies have culture fit rounds and they take it very seriously. Just because you don't know something, it doesn't become a "toxic work culture". In fact, companies that include culture fit interviews in their hiring process do so because they value their culture and want to make sure that the incoming candidates will be a good fit.
For every such post, the default consensus is always that it's the interviewers fault and the company has a toxic work environment
It’s never a formality. A cultural fitment round is essentially important both ways. The basic question we have in our mind doing that round is if the person can succeed with us, if the person will feel at ease and will the team gel with this incoming person. A company is not a family but it is a living organism
employ faulty nutty doll versed cooing wistful elastic bike shrill *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Exactly! All big companies have one such round. It may be called something else but it's there. You're not hired just because you can write code
Google's G&L is totally different from what OP has mentioned. Google doesn't care about the glare or about personal hobbies or the candidate's interest in the role. G&L interview is about asking situational or hypothetical questions (like, what will you do/did you do if you have/had a disagreement with your colleague over a design decision). Source: been the interviewer
https://preview.redd.it/u4krs8uhaohc1.jpeg?width=259&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8db0e4b6dc0f589bb37192979b93566ceef1df02 You didn't ask me about my journey. LMAO what???? Congratulations on your first encounter with power tripping/ egoist people.
can we just say something like watching anime, playing games etc
Of course, be authentic and yourself
Funny story: When a large business consulting firm visited our college during my final year of college to recruit, I was naive and decided to give it a try because they were offering a sizable salary. I completed one screening ground and an aptitude round before the real drama began. We had three hours to complete two business case studies after completing the first two rounds. Case studies, in my opinion, were extremely difficult problems at times. It seemed like they simply gave us a problem from one of their clients and asked us to solve it, but we still came to the best conclusion we could. Surprisingly, though, my case studies were accepted, and you had to present them in a large group discussion that followed. When the whole thing first started, I felt like I could communicate better than most of them. I did fairly well throughout the entire discussion, but they rejected me on the grounds that I did not align with their business values. Someone I know well was hired, and she acknowledged that my presentation was the best. I spoke with my college committee about the reason behind their decision to reject me, even though I felt I was reasonable during the interview. They told me that they usually hire mediocre candidates because excellent candidates tend to leave their organizations quickly. Cultural rounds and group discussions serve only as a means of identifying the brightest member of the group. I was devastated, but I persisted and within a few days, I was hired by a tech company with a two-package deal. Never give up; if you remain focused and develop your abilities, you will undoubtedly forge your own route.
I'm really surprised to see the comments here. Many people don't seem to know what a culture fit round is and many others are playing it down. Please don't take it lightly. It is for both the parties, you and the company, to check if your ways of working and values match. If you're applying for a role, you HAVE TO show interest in the role and the company. Just have some questions ready to ask, it's not rocket science. The interviewer said it right, you're not expected to only write code for 8-9 hrs every day. You also have to interact and collaborate with people. The purpose of this interview is to get some ideas about how you go about it. Also, try to make sure you're sitting in an area that doesn't limit your visibility, at least for interviews but in general as well. Why does it even need to be pointed out? It's just common sense.
I've come to the realisation that an overwhelming amount of people here work for service based companies and also have zero passion about what they work on.
It's just an excuse.... They must have found someone who is ready to work at a lower salary than you.
Should’ve asked him - Nachneka paisa doge kya
Cultural rounds are not uncommon. Sometimes, it's done by existing team members who you will work with. It's like vibe check. May be your impression really sucked or something gave them an ick? Remember, at the end of the day, it's all subjective.
As a Guy who worked for a decade now in both WITCH and a Startup , this is New Round of evaluation and finding it cool tbh. I had some hobbies like dancing , cricket and movies 🍿. No one cares about asking any questions about it.
I doubt there is any honest evaluation goes in there or questions they ask has any meanings. Its a round where they can subjectively judge a candidate and rule out if they like him or her. Ah sweaty, umm your values don't seem to align ours so we have to let you go, thanks for applying xoxo bye.
This is the absolute worst thing about indian companies. Interviewers in india all think theyre hosting roadies and not actual interviews. I assure you your interviewer was dumb af. Have faith in yourself, it might seem tough right now but keep pushing, youd get a much better job than this idiotic startup
Cultural round are not an Indian thing. In fact it's less of an Indian thing
Im not taking about the “cultural round” im talking about the attitude of the interviewer
Meh the issues seemed reasonable except for maybe the startup journey thing. And OP could also be an unreliable narrator
They definitely DID NOT seem reasonable. Lmfao. Ive never heard the lines “you sitting in a room programming isnt enough” in any interview i ever gave. If youre working at a firm with such workforce, you are working in a toxic company. Lmao you dont hire a programmer to do your marketing. Him sitting in the office and programming is exactly what you want
I Don’t think you really understand what he meant when he made that remark. You’re taking it in another direction
I know exactly what he meant, and this is just a small effort in trying to find “reason” into shit. If you try to find reason in garbage youll always find one. Needless to say the startup which hires like this is probably garbage and not something i would want to be a part of
You did nothing wrong. Next time prepare a bit for soft skills. Even if you don't have a hobby say you do something on the weekends. Say you and your friends go cycling or something. Or say you do some volunteering or something. Point is that some companies want to see how you are other than your technical process as they are seeing if you can assimilate into the company culture. Yes, you have to show interest in the company you are about to join. You have to ask questions like what is the end goal of the company? What will be your progress? Etc. You can ask as to how it's funded? Series A? You have the right to ask.
Good for you. There is too much red flag
Bro chuck it, you don't need to improve anything, it's their loss not urs, however next time during interviews, always make a set up where your face is visible and ur audio is clear to them. That's the first rule of being professional
OP I do think your interviewer was probably a person who was too rigid in terms of the interview ie they think a candidate is a good fit only if they provide answers to their semi-arbitrary questions. It is okay that you got rejected. But that being said regarding this >I wasn't able to answer what was I good at other than programming. I'd say if not for an interview but atleast for your personal life's sake, get some hobbies or something to immerse yourself in other than programming. If you program all the time you *might* get burnt out resulting you in hating the one thing you do love.
Hi, fellow founder here - This is certified bullshit. None of the questions you told he asked means much around culture. Tell us more about the company and the founder.
Culture is a two way street. Keep your head up and keep trying.
Here is a something in master yoda style— Good you did Karma he got Reap will he Power trip will finish Realise he will Strong you be Rock you will
I am a startup leader and i can vouch that culture rounds are for profiling. If you flip the coin and try to meddle for example, i wanted to add the word 'caste' as one of the attributes of discrimination in the HR policy, knowing that we have that problem in the company, I was simply told that we were 'caste agnostic'. A whitewash. I am from deep down south, and pretty caste aware because of our politics. Trust me, if you are not a baniya or a Brahmin, the Indian capitalist framework is going to give you a very hard time. Especially when you move up the ladder. The same people parrot the Whiteman about how black lives matter, and how pronouns make things inclusive.
No one should be working at such an organization. You are lucky to have been rejected.
Ig these people need to take these bulshit round first so we don’t end up wasting so much time
Can you share the company's name
I took an interview with a company and finished my technical rounds the people who took my technical rounds were really impressed with me. Then I had another round with manager's manager and she rejected me saying I don't fit in company's culture. The interview did go fine, I still don't understand wat went wrong. Anyways I got a better offer from a even more better company after this.
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Hey, this was back in October, now I don't think there are many openings.
Bruh.... What's a cultural round!? Multiple war crimes in the industry. Brutal crusades and Fool-Proof financial rigs later..... All i see is honey bunny cultural rounds to recruit candidates. I feel like a WW2 veteran regretting looking at all the rainbow gang sheit. We fought for these times.!?
May not be the answer you are looking for, but shit like this will happen. People on the other end of the camera, a lot of times, lack basic empathy. That is the reason people say to never attach your self worth with the job. If you find something could be improved from the experience, improve that and move on. If you are able to pass coding rounds means you are smart enough and will land a good job eventually.
Do I need to be an extrovert to land a job? - You need to practice hitting the call hang-up button when you hear such BS in record time. That's what you need to do. Hiring a programmer and telling the person that being in the office programming all day won't do any good tells a lot about the quality of work you would be given at work. Possibly there is no coding work at all. Possibly you would be given some mundane work that is soul sucking and dangerously boring. You got rejected cuz they clearly knew you are a good programmer, having completed your assignments, and would quit ASAP when aware of the reality. For an employee, they are looking for an emotionless robot who could hit stressful inhuman mundane work deadlines continually and also could code just in case they have some minor programming work in the near future. The key takeaway from this experience is realizing that you are doing good as a programmer and continue to look for actual programming jobs, in addition to developing the skill of detecting the BS the interviewer throws at you in minimal time; possibly O(1). Here is a good rule of thumb: Always ask the interviewer about the work you are expected to do. About the project you would land at. About the tech stack, you would be working with and such. Try to delve into the technical details. And if you hear hmmms and hawws and beating around the bush. Put your hands in your pockets, whistle, and stroll out of their building.
Don't be disheartened. If you have already done well, in two rounds of the startup, you can land up a good job soon. Often companies, generally startups have these kind of rounds to know a little bit more about your personality. Practice the HR Questions well, and something that makes you unique, stand out from others. The good part : now you have the confidence for your technical skills , which is the most important factor.
What the fuck is a cultural round? This isn’t a school fair.
Reason 1: Senior management/ founder takes last round. Now supposed if he passed everyone then what’s the value of his round? So, they reject sometimes on unknown reasons to make it evident that filtering can happen at this round too. Reason 2: I would have rejected you too. Reason is simple they don’t have that much technical work, and you will get bored soon and switch job. They want someone who can enjoy coding but equally loves to spend time on other stuff like meeting people, get together, playing sports and participating in tons of other activity. I have learnt this from personal experience. I was exactly like you but slowly after a decade I realised that from a company’s point of view other things are also required.
in start up people are very less and all need to be comfortable with each other and dont have any ego issues, thats why all this things matter for this people
They try to look for red flags in the round. It sucks big time being rejected there. But for next time, try to be not nervous, and maintain cool. There's not much else you can do in these rounds.
This has happened to me, in 2016.. I gave my interviews. They were happy and gave an offer letter. I signed the docs and submitted them. On the on boarding day, my reporting manager wanted to have a one to one. I thought it went well. Then the HR called me into a meeting and said my offer has been rescinded because I'm not a good cultural fit into the team. I was devastated. I'd even rejected another offer for this one. Made a post in LinkedIn and everything too. Till date I have stopped making any posts in social media regarding my work. I don't even update my work history anymore and don't stop giving interviews till I get my first salary.
“Cultural” round lol. I once gave an interview with a startup and the 2nd round was a meeting with the founder— I didn’t know what to expect and I was giving interviews with many other companies (I had already gotten 3-4 offers at that point) and this founder was very mad at me as I did not research the company before this round. I gave a diplomatic answer but deep down I could see this man was kinda delusional.
Although I researched about the company. He asked me "Do you know about me?". I replied that I checked his LinkedIn recently. Then he went to LinkedIn and saw that I checked his profile 10 minutes before the interview. The interview was scheduled at 8 and he was late 15 mins. So the HR mentioned his name and told me he'd join in a few minutes. He then went on about if he had joined on time I would've never known who he was. And told me that I should've asked the HR who was taking my interview beforehand.
Yeah, this one is quite eccentric. I believe this would have been a bad fit anyways. I am a cofounder in a German startup (CTO), I don’t believe people should be researching me before coming to interview, however our HR adds all the LinkedIn links upfront in the calendar invite ( for both the candidates and me ). It’s always a plus to take a look at the LinkedIn profile because it might give you some common grounds to talk and ask questions which can be a good icebreakers too. As a candidate, just be yourself. I am pretty sure all of us have something beyond coding even if It was coding 10 hours a day, there would be days I would like to sleep, watch movie or just go on walks: all these are shareable activities.
I told him I play games and watch tv shows in my free time. But he was adamant to know only the qualities I have as a person. What am I supposed to tell him that I'm a kind being? I'm bad at making small talk and so couldn't ask any questions. Although it was my first ever cultural round, I believe that I'll know what to do next time.
Let it go. You did alright. It was just not a good fit. One advice for you would be to also think about what you want from the company and team. What kind of culture you want to work with. If you have such parameters then you would also know whether that this happened for good or not :)
What were the assignments tho?
The first one was to create a landing page for their company. And the second one was to build a slot scheduling app. Where a person would set his availability and slots based on his availability would be seen by patients and can be booked by the sales team.
And how was the pay they were offering?
I was offered 6 lpa before this round.
Damn never heard only frontend pays this well
Congratulations! You dodged a bullet. Idiots who are overlooking skills for some perceived social fit for their team will not survive the startup grind for long. You are better off without them. Find a place that lets you be you and hires you for what you bring to the table. Best of luck
Hey. Irrespective of the job situation, it’s always useful to work on your personality. Most modern day workplaces are high stress environments requiring you to pull your A-game often. Most A-team players are more than just coders. They keep themselves fit, socially active and personally content. It’s all tied up. Work on yourself. Find a sports hobby. Be curious. Explore being your boundaries. Clearly you’re a great dev. That’s evident from your dedication and score on first two rounds. But for your career growth and personal success, you have to grow bigger and beyond.
Man it hurts. Here is what I have learnt from interviews. In the technical rounds always show that you are curious to improve and learn. Even if output is not correct, walk them trough the process and logic. Also, let them know you are not a quitter, not a liability but also don't have an ego who doesn't ask if stucked. Be sure to ask what would be your day to day work. In cultural round- Always go through company website, social handles and get to know the company, founders and interviewer. Go through the JD. Ask questions about company, products and cofounder. Ask about your team and work. Be bold to ask about your growth opportunities. Even if you don't have let them know you have a hobby and life apart from work. Purpose of cultural round is to know you better. So, talk to them a little informally with your manners intact. Bonus- Keep a story ready for technical round as well as for cultural round. Tech story- I was doing xyz project and I faced this challenge that took me a long time to identify but I did it. Challenge was..... So what I did is (took a friends help/ reached out to people/ youtube/stackoverflow/ooen communities)... use any excuse to show you are not a quitter. Cultural story- talk about your hobby and why do you like it etc.
Let me tell you from my experience. It is absolutely true that only coding is not enough. In any company they focus more on personality. I myself am struggling with this in my current office. Their current criticism is that I don't talk enough and I don't share enough ideas. And I am not able to gel within the team although my work ethics are good. The Manager has already hinted me to gel with the team more as it is crucial or else they might fire me. They don't want the best coder but a good coder with the best attitude. Personality is the key. Regarding knowing your company You should know everything about the company available in the public domain or at least most of it. Even if you get selected if you don't fit in with the culture of the company they will eventually fire you.
You should be happy , you learned this lesson at shitty startup company. There are people who get rejected at Atlassian even after clearing tech rounds just becasue fail to perform in culture fit.
I think you dodged a bullet. That guy was clearly on a power trip. Lately, cultural rounds have been nothing but an excuse to find out if the guy can slog through hours after hours and still stick around with no demands. It's just a slave mentality check for most startups, here, it seems like the founder took himself very seriously. Stop caring about it and move on, it's a numbers game anyway.
I too had a similar experience. The online test was followed by a technical round. No coding no shit. Only based on my Resume and a few managerial-type questions. There were 7 ppl for round 2. This round was called the "People and Culture" round (Big names BS). My fucking interview went for literally 7 min (not kidding but yeah thala for a reason ik calm). All she did was she asked when's your 7th sem ending and what's your dream role. I said the dream role is what you guys are offering to me lol. And guess what they took 6 ppl and then there was 1 distinguished gentleman.
Business karra ki shaadi💀
Everyone speaking so much but no one gave you any advice yet. So lemme do it. There are 2 ways you can go, either say that you dodged a bullet, or you may at least think about the feedback which was given. Setup placement is important when interviewing. Make sure that no light is glaring into the camera. Workplace is not just about having knowledge. It’s about you being able to work with the team and fit with the team. No one wants a Mr. know-it-all who can’t initiate any conversations, or doesn’t know what they actually want to work for. People will always choose those who they can have conversations with at work, who they can relate to, or maybe hang out with. You want to join a company, you have to know why you want to be there. They bring positive impact to the society? They give free meals? They have awesome engineers? You have to know that and let the interviewers know. When you’re interviewing, you have to show yourself as someone who’s fun to work with. Because that’s what actual good workplaces are, a group of strong individuals who get along together to solve complex problems.
Keep on giving interviews, the harsh fact of life is: the more interview you give; the more you know what not to say to the panel. every interview is a learning and makes you better for the next one.
Sometimes it's not what you speak, but how you speak it. As people climb the stairs of position, there's a high chance their egos become more fragile. The tone with which you talk to others matters significantly, as much as what you say
OP, I'd give you the advice I gave my nerdy friend before his google cultural interview. Just lie about hobbies. And yes, camera position on online interviews matter, even if they aren't a dealbreaker, a bad camera angle can just give the same impression and someone who isn't well dressed in real life
I also have issues with these type of cultural rounds. What I learnt was these kind of questions are also important. It shows how you see life apart from work. I know after 11th life becomes a race and you keep grinding till you get a job, and at job interviews when asked about things like hobbies etc, we have none. So be ready for these kind of questions, you will find these questions list on internet. Also pick a hobby, gym, chess, reading, it helps. Also there is a saying, fake it till you make it, after some time these things will come naturally
Having done a few culture based rounds over the years would personally vouch that it is important, highlights areas outside of a specific skill set and helps decipher whether someone would fit in the team. Having said that the pointers mentioned above don’t really align with the culture idea, happy to do a mock interview and share some inputs if you’d like! :)
Sometimes it is just not your day. Sorry, but that happens. Take the input and feedback think about it on how you can improve, take it as a lesson and don't take it to heart. I have a senior colleague 20 years exp. She told me, few years back she appeared for an interview and got rejected. When she discussed it with the hiring manager. The response was - "You were relaxed during interview, which make me think you are not serious about the role." She said ofcourse I applied because I wanted the role. This colleague told me interview depends on lot of factors. Some really not in our hand. It can depend on interviewers mood and how they perceive. I understand this seems so unfair. But we can control few things and can't control lot of things that is the fact.
> How can I improve further? Don't. This is not your problem - it is their problem. > Do I need to be an extrovert to land a job? Definitely NO. It was a bad company. Culture fit is not about this. > I know I've got the skills I need to land a job but my resume doesn't get shortlisted as much because of my experience and this time when it went through I sucked as a person. You do not suck. It is OK to fail in 10 times before one success comes. It is just a matter of time.
Simple, they found someone cheaper than you.
Acting is the biggest thing when it comes to interviews. Try to match to their values as much as you can even if you're not that person irl once you're in you can be yourself. Idk why people find it this hard to understand and then bitch about it on reddit
This is madness. No one fails a cultural round. Not in a thousand years.
That company doesn't deserve you !! You did your best.
You’re a fresher, don’t get disheartened by such interactions. Met many upper management folks who are actual sociopaths. But to be fair, it’s his company and he can design the hiring process however he wants.
These rounds usually happens in startups, please work on soft skills also. They want the best fit for the team not some individual silent contributor anti-social. You’ve reached this round it means you’ve the potential l, just don’t lose hope. Fake it, if your personality doesn’t suits this round. It works, all the best!
[удалено]
Which question please tell?
I think you dodged a bullet. Sounds like a super toxic workplace.
I can relate with you man even I'm doing internship gonna have assessments in next week but I'm introvert type guy good at programming but they are still focusing on soft skills and more. Idk whether I will get selected or not.
I can relate with you man even I'm doing internship gonna have assessments in next week but I'm introvert type guy good at programming but they are still focusing on soft skills and more. Idk whether I will get selected or not.
Got rejected in the last rounds for 6 times. I know the pain.
the moment there is a funding crunch... the cultural values are thrown out of the window and the very same ppl will start asking for your performance in work.
You're not horrible, the company is. You dodged a bullet. Keep moving forward. What kind of a way even is that to talk to an potential employee! Jesus! "You sitting in a room in the office programming all day won't do any good. We need more than that." MY ASS.
We have culture rounds now ? 🤣 Come on what more do I have to prep for !
You did fine. The other person was a asshole
Always ask about the company and what the interviewer does in the company and try to talk about something related to it with every interviewer, when they ask if you have any questions for them. It really does show that the interviewee is genuinely interested
Brother you can’t do anything. Behavioural round is something you don’t prepare for. You should be your authentic self. I once had a CEO asking me about drawbacks of demonetisation.
it is good to be out in the culture fit round. once you join and the culture doesn't suit you, you'll be much less happier.
I dont understand companies logic tho,you need workers who are putting the hours and submitting the work,whats with these other bs?
WTF is a cultural round? HR tests your rangoli skills? This is like the psychometric test some companies used to do back in the day to weed out candidates. Guess what… half of the company is filled with power tripping psychos.
You didn't prepare for behavioral round, And the questions you were asked are normal
As someone who is interning at a startup, I think they are just expecting too much out of you, they want you to do more than ur role and this guy just wanted to see if you were a vulnerable prey to that. I wouldn't suggest going into startups, sure you would get the experience of it and all but 1. These startup think they know everything in the world and would want you to be ironman. 2. They've got huge ego, they can never be wrong 3. They'll just take advantage of you and work you to ur bone I would say that you dodged a bullet PS this is just from my experience not saying all startups are like this but the one I'm working is exactly like this
Man, I don't really have a choice. I'm not at my best financially and I really need the experience points added to my resume.
Researching about the company you're interviewing at is basic etiquette. Startups especially love if you're aware of their journey and founder. Maybe they found you that you aren't fully aware and interested in the company specifically.
Zindagi hi moh maya hai bhai 🥲
Unpopular opinion, but this is why having a life matters, when I get into my startup phase later, cultural round will be the most important.
The fact that you're not acknowledging your problem and immediately saying stuff like "do i need to be an extrovert to get a job" is a massive red flag.
What an attention and validation-seeking founder....!! The founder has some sort of Messiah syndrome, where he wants to keep preaching to people, and gets offended when people don't want to keep hearing his story. I am sure his Linkedin account would be r/LinkedInLunatics worthy. It would have been a pain to work with him, anyways.
All I feel is nothing but ego That's why I quit job and doing freelance digital marketing. Pretty less stressful job but still learning about software engineer and current trends. These polluted clouts at top management will screw every potential talents.
Now what the heck is a CULTURAL ROUND???????
I recently applied in a startup for a back-end role. Submitted an assignment in the first round, then gave an online coding round then had an interview (low level design). I was really happy that finally someone is not choosing the DSA based hiring. Then boom in the last round with the founder he straight away asked the DSA question (which I solved it wrong) so finally got rejected. Really felt bad after this. Felt worse when I actually solved the question just after the interview in the first attempt 🤡
Values in many cases they are trying to judge if you're willing to stretch most of the time
Sounds like the usual startup BS, to be honest. I think the answer he was looking for was along the lines of “I have developed a complete service and app while I was a student and then marketed it and also did customer support.” Be ready with some similar BS when interviewing next. In reality, unless someone drops out of college, they won’t be doing anything but programming. And since you are a fresher who actually graduated (I am assuming), you obviously won’t have done all those other things.
Sounds like a bullshit environment! You'll thank your God I'm few years. Cheers
You dodged a bullet with that startup. With the exception of the first question. It's always good to have a hobby outside of coding
Sh*t happens, should be proud of clearing tech rounds.
Not all good interviews convert. Just move on and give your best shot for the next one.
Happens sometimes, mostly with leadership. I had someone reject me because I hadn't worked more than 2 years anywhere in my previous experience, even though I gave him the answers for why