I interviewed with TravelPerk for a role at the Berlin office. The process was quite lengthy, with each interview lasting about 1.5 hours. It included two technical interviews — the first felt more like a vetting step, while the second required building a client for an external API and wrapping it with another API. The system design round involved creating a solution to update flight statuses. I did the system design interview in person. One of the interviewers seemed disengaged, giving the impression that my presence was bothersome. The technical discussion itself barely scratched the surface; whenever I tried to dive deeper into certain components, they steered back to their prepared list of questions. Overall, I was not impressed with the technical depth or expertise demonstrated by the interviewers. After completing all these lengthy rounds, I never received any feedback. That felt especially disrespectful given the significant time and effort invested in the process.

An RH person on LinkedIn has contacted me. He had cancelled the first interview, saying that "Google Meeting is not working". Then we rescheduled for next week. He started saying "Let's do the boring things" and explained the role. Then he asked me to "talk about myself". I've done a summary of my career, avoiding technical things because it was apparently a screening interview. After less than an hour into the interview, he told me that the team had decided not to progress my application. It was strange for me because it was a screening, and the negative feedback came so fast, so I asked for feedback. To be honest, I felt like he just sent the interview transcription to an AI. To my surprise, that was the feedback: "As you interviewed with us back in November 2024. We normally schedule a call just to double-check if any of your circumstances have changed. Compensation, location, notice, for starters, as within a year, a lot can change. As well as to find out what you're working on professionally since we last interviewed you, too. The reason we aren't progressing is that, at this current moment, after reviewing your application. The team feel we wouldn't have a suited role for you. So we wouldn't want to waste your time!" He didn't mention that at any moment they wanted to "find out what you're working on professionally since we last interviewed". I would have focused on the things I have worked on in the last year if I had known it, and it wouldn't have been a waste of time. Anyway, it was not a good experience.