The interview process for Handshake's Early Career Software Engineer position included a phone screening, a take-home assignment with a follow-up interview, and a hiring manager interview. The take-home assignment tested your technical abilities while the hiring manager interview asked more about your past experiences and skills.

The interview process at Handshake was one of the best recruitment experiences I’ve had. Everyone I interacted with was incredibly kind, professional, and supportive. The process included two stages. The first stage was a 30-minute conversation with a recruiter, where I was asked about my recent experience and got to learn more about the role and the team. After that, I received clear instructions for a coding challenge that I needed to complete before moving on to the next stage. The second stage was a live coding session with two engineers, where we worked together on a pair programming task. Although it was my first live coding experience and naturally a bit nerve-wracking, they were extremely supportive and patient throughout. They even took the time to give me constructive feedback afterward, sharing tips on how to improve in future coding challenges and highlighting areas I could focus on. Even though I didn’t get the role, I truly appreciated receiving personalized feedback—a rare but invaluable touch in today’s hiring process. Overall, it was a great experience, and Handshake seems like a fantastic company to work for.

1. Recruiter Phone Screen: Talk about resume, experience and how it aligns with the role. 2. Technical Virtual On-Site Interview: pair programming with 2 software engineers at Handshake to implement features of a web app in a stack of your choice. A spec to bootstrap the app is given ahead of time. 1 Hour solo, 1 hour pair programming. 3. Hiring manager screening with 2 engineering managers, about 45 min in total. Overall, I really enjoyed the process. Everyone I met was very kind and passionate about Handshakes mission. This was a unique interview process in that it most of the interviews felt like conversations, it was a very positive experience. Although I didn't get an offer, I would definitely work at Handshake given the culture and mission.