I was connected to CharterUP through a recruiter. I had a call with a talent acquisition member at CharterUP and they were very nice and informative. They told me CharterUP has a thorough interview process and the next steps for me would be taking a cognitive test and some timed "tricky" programming exercises. A day after the call I sent an email and kindly declined moving forward with the interview process. The talent acquisition member replied and asked for candid feedback. I sent an email explaining I did not want to continue because I did not want to take a cognitive test or solve tricky programming problems. I explained that I prefer interviewing with companies that test for skills I will use in my day-to-day work. For example, a system design interview, a coding challenge where you can explain your thought process with the interviewer, or a collaborative problem where you see what it's like to work with someone from the company. This is the reply I received (with my personal name and company removed): EMAIL START [MY NAME], I appreciate the feedback and respect it 😊 At the end of the day, the fastest growing firms are testing for aptitude and skill. If you’re looking for places that won’t test for these things, I would recommend some of larger and more stable firms (for example, [THE CURRENT COMPANY I WORK FOR] has almost 30,000 employees). Good luck the rest of the way for you. EMAIL END I'll let that response speak for itself. I should have listened to the existing Glassdoor reviews here.

The interview process took about 5 weeks, with several rounds. Throughout the process, I had engaging and insightful conversations with the team members I met. The interview questions were clear and fairly standard for a senior engineering role, and the team made the experience enjoyable. In one of the final rounds, I completed the live coding challenge in 10 seconds, and the interviewer got really impressed. I also felt that the final architecture-focused discussion went well and gave me a good sense of the company’s technical vision. Ultimately, I did not receive an offer. While I didn’t receive detailed feedback to fully understand the decision, my impression is that compensation may have been a factor, as the stated budget changed midway through the process and ended up being lower than expected for a senior role. Even so, I came away with a positive impression of the team and the company. Everyone I spoke with was talented and collaborative, and I would be open to future opportunities with CharterUP.