Internal recruiter reached out to me via LinkedIn. I had a 20 minute phone call to get to know what the company did and the role they were seeking to fill. Next I filled out a personality survey that consisted of 5 parts that each took about 20 minutes to complete. The recruiter was very enthusiastic about making the process quick. I took the survey on Monday and was scheduled for an in-person interview for Wednesday the same week. But the in-person interview was only a peer interview with 2 peers, both lead developers. I never spoke to a manager during the entire process. The first peer interview was conversational, nothing technical. That part ended with a verbal conclusion shared out loud that I would fit in with the culture very well. The 2nd part, the interviewer reminded me of Agent Smith in the movie The Matrix, how mono toned he talked, it was a bit distracting. I was presented with a scenario where the interviewer becomes the customer who is seeking an upgrade to an existing app. The interviewer wrote down the questions I asked seeking requirements for the upgrade. Then I was asked to diagram a database on the whiteboard for an inventory system including the new tables needed for the upgrade. I had never built an inventory system before, but database diagrams are easy. I left the interview thinking that I did pretty well. I think if a manager had been present, I might have gotten an offer. Managers are more experienced interviewing, and are more people focused than developers. Developers can have an opinion, but this would have been better with a manager present. Companies like Valorem Reply put such an importance on being a "team-player," how well you will "fit in," yet in the interview they measure your value against how well and how fast you work alone(without a team), in a 30 minute block of time(nobody is that efficient). How are candidates supposed to prepare for such an interview? I even asked the recruiter on the phone, if they would require white boarding and he said no white boarding. No matter how many apps I have built for my portfolio; no matter how much JavaScript, React, or C# experience I have; no matter how much I practiced writing out code on a white board; it wouldn’t have prepared me for this interview. How's that for a paradox?