Me postulé en línea. Acudí a una entrevista en Canonical en ene 2021
Entrevista
First interview with a peer, second interview with another peer, third interview with yet another peer and finally the hiring manager interview others have experienced.
All of the first three interviews went fairly well and people were very friendly and sociable, and asked good questions about my experience and offerings to the position. However, over the weeks of interviewing it became apparent there were disruptions going on with what they were actually looking to fill. The job title changed three times, and by the time I got to the last interview the description wasn't even in line with the original post - they were looking for a project manager, not a product manager. It is rather frustrating to commit this time when they haven't sorted out what position they even want to fill yet. At any rate, everyone was friendly and sociable at the outset, so I didn't have any problematic experiences there like others have said.
Sadly, though, I can mainly confirm the weird organizational goings-on described by other posters. Although, I don't think I feel as strongly as others do. The interviews themselves were perfectly fine, but there's obviously other challenges going on behind the scenes that you may not expect from a company like this.
I recently completed Canonical's application process for an Enterprise Project Manager role. The application itself was a significant time suck, but what I found most troubling were questions about high school mathematics and language performances, including requests to justify answers with standardised test scores and academic rankings.
High school performance has nothing to do with professional aptitude. Many talented, capable people have disrupted educations, working multiple jobs to get through college, raising families while studying, or coming from underprivileged backgrounds. GPA and high school test scores do not reflect intelligence or ability. They reflect circumstances.
These questions are discriminatory in their impact, even if unintentional. We are years past COVID, which exposed every inequality in our education system. For a company that prides itself on global diversity and inclusion, these questions send the opposite message.
Me postulé en línea. Acudí a una entrevista en Canonical
Entrevista
The interview process was thorough, but not overwhelming or too long. They focused on skills and experience, rather than asking trick questions. Interviewer was warm and friendly, I enjoyed the experience
Preguntas de entrevista [1]
Pregunta 1
Tell us about the most impactful project you’ve handled
Just after applying for a role, they send you an email with lots of questions to complete a written submissions (when I say a lot of questions, I mean 6 sections with at least 5 questions each). They ask you not to use any AI or assistant to make it true and honest. I spent around 1 hour to answer every question. All to get an rejection "no-reply" email on the next day without any detailed feedback on why I was rejected.
Preguntas de entrevista [1]
Pregunta 1
6 categories:
Engineering experience (7 questions, like "Describe your experience with enterprise infrastructure and application management, either as a user running enterprise operations, or as a vendor targeting the enterprise market").
Management experience (4 questions like "Describe the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly habits you expect in a well-run software engineering team, for individuals and the team").
Industry leadership experience (4 questions like "Describe your experience using content to generate interest in your product")
Canonical context (5 questions like "Outline your thoughts on the mission of Canonical. What is it about the company's purpose and goals which is most appealing to you? What is risky or unappealing? Are there any elements of the company goals that you are unsure about?")
Education (9 questions like "Can you make a case that you are in the top 5% in your academic year, or top 1%, or even higher? If so, please outline that case. Make reference where possible to standardised testing results at regional or national level, or university entrance results. Please explain any specific grading system used").
Domain-specific questions (10 domains, each one with specific questions, like "AI/ML & MLOps - Describe where you see the market for AI/ML & MLOps going over the next 5 years?"
