TripActions interview process was a mess. When the recruiter asks you over the phone, do you have experience with Hibernate, it should trigger a red flag. It’s a clear indication that they are focusing too much on toolset skills, and not on problem solving. I told that I have not used Hibernate, and my resume has no mention of it. I still was called for an on site. The interview was a mixed experience. Two of the people showed up very late to the interview, one was late by 10 minutes. One did not show up, and they were unable to find someone else to take that spot. Some engineers were smart and might be nice as co-workers. But as an overall strategy, they had no idea on how to conduct interviews. Some of the non-technical questions were weird, the world has moved away from such questions for technical software engineering interviews. In general, I came out with a very negative impression for the non-technical folks. I was told later, that my skill set is better suited for a different group, as this group needs HIbernate skills, and already has senior engineers and can I come back for another interview with a different group. How disrespectful can you be? I took a day off to come for the interview. They didn’t even do the due diligence on skill set match or seniority expectations, people showed up late for interviews, and the recruiter calmly suggested I should come back for another interview. Are you kidding me? I was given ballpark numbers on compensation at that stage, but I politely said that I have accepted another offer, even though I hadn’t and moved on. They are also thinking of themselves as a Unicorn, with success guaranteed and their offer did not have much of an equity. The company has a good business opportunity, but as a software engineer, you may not adequately share the success with this little equity. I would not recommend wasting your time and energy interviewing with them.

AI first round interview, had timer set for 20 minutes, and cut off strictly at the time, so I was cut-off midway through my answer. Wish they would have the usual 1st round screen with a recruiter instead of using AI.