I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at FreeAgent (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Interview
After being referred by an external recruiter, I had an initial phone screening with an internal recruiter to talk about the company, what I was looking for, remote working etc.
I next completed a two-part technical assessment submitting code and documentation for review. I didn't hear back specifically about this, but a video call was scheduled a few days later with three members of the team I was joining. This call went into my previous experience and a wide range of technical questions covering different technologies I had worked with and some that I hadn't.
I was next invited to the Edinburgh office (expenses paid) for one day for what was described as a "chat" by the external recruiter, but was two consecutive interview, lunch and a third interview. It was quite a gruelling day!
Interviews were mostly with managers of other teams and focused a lot on ways of working, how I handled problems, disagreements etc. I also learned a bit more about what the team did and planned work at this stage, mostly over lunch. The third interview was with two senior engineers and we went into depth on a technical project I'd completed at a previous job.
I received a job offer and accepted shortly after. It was a long, intense process and felt quite repetitive compared to other interviews.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How have you handled a disagreement with your colleagues?
Hi there, thanks for sharing this review online. It sounds like there is some room for improvement communicating with external recruiters. I'd love to hear more about your experience, especially if you have any ideas for where we can do better. Thanks! Katie
Other Senior Software Engineer interview reviews for FreeAgent
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at FreeAgent (Edinburgh, Scotland) in Feb 2022
Interview
The interview process was thorough and consisted of five parts in total;
- Phone screening
- Short programming exercise (take home)
- Experience/ Development Process discussions
- Technical discussion
- Behavioural discussion
The process was relatively fast and accommodating to my availability. Although there were many steps they each served a purpose.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe an existing system you have developed in detail, and follow up questions on the reasoning behind those decisions and what impact they had.
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at FreeAgent (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Interview
Brief phone chat about my experience and aspirations. This was followed by an un-timed coding test. Although they say un-timed, the instructions implied a time frame which is a couple of hours.
There is a strong requirement to implement this in Ruby. The problem itself is an implementation of a trivial method, however don't be fooled because they are interested in your approach, use of patterns and attention to detail. If you have used Ruby before and are half a decent software engineer this should cost you an hour at most. This is the first time I wrote Ruby and it took me about 3 hrs approximately to get a solution I was happy to go with.
Really important to note that you are not allowed to change any function signatures and such. This is not stated in the instructions and was raised as an issue in my case, because I decided to do so. Following up with HR it was indicated that it is sort of implied.
So just be cautious. I have provided feedback and let them know that it should be stated clearly that we cannot change the functions the slightest. Not sure if that will be incorporated.
This is a young company and I believe just like anybody else it would take some time for them to refine their process. All in all, everybody I interacted with was pleasant.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
General questions about experience and aspirations followed by a coding test.
Hi there,
Thanks so much for taking the time to write your review. Feedback is really helpful and I think we'll always want to improve what we do wherever we can. We've since slightly amended the instructions to remove any doubt.
Best wishes,
Katie
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