I thought quite a bit about writing a review concerning my interview process. Overall, I really enjoyed the process. I thought the interviewers were very personable and created a laid back experience. What ultimately left me to leave a review is I felt like the way things ended felt confusing and inconsistent with a "top 40 places to work".
I received an email very shortly after sending in an application inviting me to a Zoom call with someone from Lendio. The conversation was very casual, and focused more on general, "get to know you" type questions. After completing this process, a time was scheduled to talk with the head of the Technical department the following week.
I got on the call the following week, and similarly enjoyed the atmosphere and focus of the interviewer. He was very good to allow me to talk about myself and my accomplishments. It got to the point of talking about their technology stack. He mentioned they use Laravel, which I knew about, but had not directly programmed using that framework. I knew this going in, because it was noted in the job description. There was, however, a note that direct experience with their stack is not required. I mentioned I had worked quite extensively with Symfony, which has a lot of similarities to Laravel, which would greatly lessen the learning curve.
We wrapped up the interview, and I was informed I'd hear back in a few days. Shortly afterwards, I was greeted by another email from the interviewer asking that I complete a coding assignment. It was Tuesday afternoon, and he requested that I complete the assignment by Friday at 1:00. I have a full-time job, so I would be limited to evening times. He noted the intent was to determine my ability to learn the framework. Considering I had not used it before, it felt like a very reasonable request, and I actually looked forward to working "hands-on" using their stack.
The assignment consisted of doing a full CRUD front-end and back-end implementation using Vue and Laravel. I was given little else as far as instruction; I was just instructed to do something I would enjoy and that could demonstrate some of my technical abilities.
I was able to complete the assignment as outlined Thursday night, and pushed the code to Github Friday morning before I went to work.
I didn't hear anything until the following Wednesday, when I received a very generic sounding email stating they would be pursing other candidates. Certainly, I was disappointed, but wanted to be gracious and perhaps learn something for the future, so I replied asking if there was anything they could note that might help me in future job seeking, to which I never received a reply. I understand they can't reply to all candidates with personal feedback, but it seemed reasonable to me for as late in the process as we were, and after requesting my personal time to at least provide a bit of understanding and feedback.
It is perfectly fine that I did not get the job; it was not the first time, and won't be the last, but it felt very cold an impersonal for a company that prides itself so much on creating a great culture for their customers and employees.