Two things, first: #1. I have been always aspired by the idea of working in an organisation like GitLab, as it is a synonym to Open Source code. #2. Despite the generally negative reviews in Glassdoor, I tried not to be biased in prior to the interview.
I was contacted by a Technical Recruiter one week in prior to the interview via LinkedIn in order to arrange an initial call. I arranged the interview and informed the recruiter accordingly.
By then, the only information I had regarding the position was that is an engineering position related to security (Defense).
The interview was via an online platform. The process was to be started by the recruiter and was done so, three minutes later than the arranged time; of course, no one needs to be *that* punctual, no problem with that. As stated, they had a kind of not-so-common-online platform, so after those three minutes, it took me one minute to set my setting to 'allow' for my mic and webcam. All set, and the first thing I hear from the recruiter is: "that took a while".
I try to convince myself that I did not hear that clearly, but as it turned out by the end of the conversation, I my impression was unfortunately correct.
First question, more or less, to describe my background and my current positions tasks. I start talking about them for about 3'-5'. The recruiter seemed not to be interested at what I am saying -that is the most appropriate way I can describe her reaction- and asks me about my technical skills. I was figuring out by that time where this is going, so I told her about some of recent development projects, as well as the fact that I am not comfortable with Go and Ruby On Rails, the two programming languages she mentioned in the beginning of the conversation. As soon as I finish my sentence, she replied with something along the lines: "we will have to stop here, thank you for your time, ... (you know the rest probably)". Duration of the call: 7' - 9'.
I was really upset by the end of this interview. Not only, technical recruiters sometimes seem to have no idea what they are looking for, but also tend to be quite disrespectful. I have been wondering why it was that hard to have been asked my experience in Go and Ruby On Rails via LinkedIn? Why I was been interviewed, when I am clearly not stating anywhere that I know any of those two programming languages? WHO is supposed to know all the programming languages whatsoever?
Dear recruiters, please start to recognise the value of your candidates. You are dealing with people looking for a job, while doing your job. That should be sufficient to treat them with the minimum amount of respect.