1st Online Test multiple choice questions within a time frame of 3 (three) hours. Something like 100 questions more or less.I used up all the time, needless to say, as a great deal of questions featured a screen full of code I had to study before I could give an answer.
2nd Telephone/Technical Interview asking about my background and experience and some
technical questions. (half an hour more or less)
3rd Personal/Technical Interview at company's premises, questions pretty similar to the telephone interview just more of them. (1 hour)
I made it up to this far, there was one final stage with the HR.
The really outrageous part of all this process is that I NAILED all the technical interviews. I scored ABOVE 80/100 in my first online test which put me in the category "Strong" in the ranking.
My phone interview AND my in-premises interview were also exceptional, with only 10 out of 100 questions or so not getting a perfect answer, (because nobody is perfect - you know).
The explanation for this? My best guesses are:
1) I am over forty years old and I am smart enough not to give hints in my CV about my age. Most IT companies prefer younger people for several reasons. They only found out when I got to their premises.
If my technical competence was a problem, I wouldn't get an invitation for the last technical interview - 2 interviews would be enough to rank my skills.
2) These interviewers were a joke. They were kids HALF my age, possibly early twenties. I checked them online in LinkedIn. Agile Actors was their FIRST job and they had been in the company for something like 3 years. Java is the only thing they knew. Compare this to me with over15 years of experience in the IT industry and competence in Java, C++, Elixir, Ruby. I am sure my resume compared to theirs made them
feel VERY insecure. Go figure.
I applied because 2 of my former colleagues ( not developers though) work there and told me about
good work/life balance practices.
Normally, I shouldn't even proceed with the first test unless I got feedback from them that their budget could handle my salary. I mean, how do they even proceed with a series of tests, ASSUMING that once I pass all these tests I will accept any salary they offer? Or maybe it's part of their strategy to put you under this lenghty process so that they can prepare you psychologically to accept ANY offer.
Good luck to everyone applying, take my tips under consideration. Glassdoor rocks!