The interviewer was a bit late, but she thanked me for taking the time for the interview and asked how I was doing. She introduced herself and then inquired about my decision to apply for the position, as well as what I was looking for and what I wanted to avoid in a job. I provided a lengthy presentation about my previous jobs, detailing what I did and how my roles evolved over time. She asked why I was working remotely and if that was important to me. She also asked if the job's tech stack was relevant and important to me, noting that they use an old and deprecated framework, Kohana PHP. The company has two web teams, one new and one mobile team, with a total of eight people and plans to grow to twelve. They currently rely mostly on freelancers but want to make some positions permanent. They do not have a QA or Scrum Master, as well as DevOps teams so developers are expected to handle these responsibilities themselves. They are looking for a backend developer who is comfortable working with old frameworks like Kohana. The Tech interviewers believes strongly in Kohana's extensibility and customization, indicating there won't be any migration in the near future. Given their reliance on freelancers, they have only 2 or 3 in-house developers who have been with the company for many years. The position is fully on-site for the first three months, then hybrid with a minimum of one day on-site per week. The starting suggested salary is 60k.

I had a great interview experience. The process was well-structured, with three rounds: an initial 30-minute call with the recruiter, a technical discussion with the lead engineer, and an onsite coding challenge. Everyone I interacted with was respectful, helpful, and genuinely friendly, making the experience feel more like a conversation than a high-pressure evaluation. The team’s professionalism and supportive approach left a lasting impression on me. It didn't work out for me, but whoever lands this role is in for a real treat!