4y
Hello
I am sorry you had a negative experience. Since it was a Data Science role, it would have been me running the interview. I am sorry you found it upsetting. I did not realise -- I don't know who this comment is from, but I've never noticed an interviewee being upset. You must have managed to hide it as no more than normal interview nerves. I am sorry you felt upset.
We try to make interviews as pleasant as we can -- offering you a cup of tea, and a bar of chocolate as a thank-you.
But interviews are inherently a stressful thing. Our tech interviews include a task related to the job. These tasks are challenging. As a small company with big goals, the work here is often challenging, so we test for that.
Interview tests are far from perfect. A good candidate on a bad day can easily trip up, and no doubt we have lost some good candidates that way -- perhaps you were one such. But they are better than just going by CV for ability, plus they allow us to include and make job offers to people with less traditional backgrounds.
Re. your portfolio -- I hear you felt insulted by questions about it, and I am sorry -- I think our questions may have been misunderstood. We often see portfolio projects from coursework, where much of the code was provided, or a fork-and-tweak of another project. In which case, we ask about what parts are original. This is not an insult. Re-using existing code is a sensible thing! The question would have been to better understand your skills.
If we cut the interview short, that would be because interviews are inherently stressful, and we don't wish to prolong that more than necessary. Why make someone jump through hoops if they're not going to get the job? I'm sorry you felt bad leaving the interview. There are many reasons why someone might not fit a particular job, or might do badly in an interview.
Kind regards,
- Daniel