The interview process was extensive and consisted of several stages over a number of weeks.
The first stage was a take-home technical assignment related to electricity price forecasting. I was given a few days to complete the project and present my approach. After submitting the assignment, I was invited to a technical interview that was scheduled for one hour but lasted approximately 1.5 hours. The interview was conducted by two people from the team, including one interviewer from Southern Europe. The discussion was professional and positive. They asked detailed questions about the project, coding decisions, modeling approach, and how I reached conclusions from the price prediction results.
After this stage, I was invited to a second round with HR, which was a short conversation of around 15 minutes covering my motivation, salary expectations, and availability.
The next interview was with a senior machine learning manager based in the UK. This was a positive and transparent discussion about my technical background and previous work. The interviewer mentioned that he was happy with my profile and that he would provide positive feedback.
Following this, I had another technical interview with the Head of Pricing from Western Europe. This interview focused mainly on mathematical concepts, formulas, quantitative methods, and my previous experience. At the end of the conversation, she said that hopefully we would speak again soon.
The final stage was an invitation to interview at the company headquarters in London. The interviewer was originally from Eastern Europe and also held a Western European nationality. The discussion started normally with brainstorming questions and motivation for the role. We discussed visa sponsorship, and I explained that I am an EU citizen and have the required UK visa status.
During this interview, the interviewer asked several personal questions that I found unusual for a professional recruitment process, including where I was born and details about my educational history before my PhD, such as my master's studies. After learning that I was born outside the EU, the conversation moved to my country of origin and its national football team, how he loves my origin country and its people, including the fact that a coach from his country had previously managed my countyr national footbal team.
Later in the conversation, he raised topics related to discrimination and border controls. He explained that he was unhappy that at borders he could use the EU line while his wife, who still held an Eastern European passport without Schengen access, had to use another line. I found this topic unrelated to the role and uncomfortable in an interview setting, so I chose not to engage in the discussion and continued answering the professional questions.
After the final interview, HR contacted me for the decision. I had another short Zoom call with the same interviewer, lasting approximately three minutes. He asked how I felt about the process, and I responded that I had a positive impression. He informed me that they had selected another candidate but encouraged me to apply again in the future.
Overall, most technical interviews were professional, challenging, and focused on relevant skills. However, the final interview included personal questions about my origin and background that I considered inappropriate and unrelated to evaluating my suitability for the Quantitative Analyst position. Since that process, I have not been invited to any further interviews with the company despite applying again.