I got bored with my current work so recently went on an adventure to do a career change and decided to interview for a role which I am really passionate about. PayPal was quick to respond within a day after recruiter call, I got interview with HM. I was surprised how fast was the turnaround time only to found out that HM was arrogant narcissistic personality whose only intent for interview was to show off, how awesome and knowledgeable he is and how people at FAANG are overhyped. The interview lasted 28 minutes and the person was either actively driving or was in moving car in passenger seat, because i can hear google maps direction over the call. There was neither introduction nor he explained about the role first but straight went into first question, Why should we hire you? When i start giving some my relevant background to the role they have, he cut me off mid way and said my name loud and then said to me, I don't think you understand my question. When i asked what he mean he said he looked up my profile and since my past experience does include F, G and Apple, he want to know what is the reason I am applying at PayPal. I gave honest answer that I want to try something different and I do feel PayPal as a payment platform is in very strong place right now and has a huge further potential to expand and I want to be part of that journey. He responded proudly but then start explaining how tough is PayPal hiring bar and many FAANG candidate don't usually cut it, At this point I got confused about the message and what he is trying to communicate. He then went ahead and asked questions from my resume about my current project details and asked me questions that why we are doing things in this way when there are so many better ways to do those things. He start talking about paradigm shift in software engineering and in product management and claims that many of new P2P apps and services are just clone of PayPal and how even Google want to be like PayPal with Google Pay services. Then he also start blabbering about why we (Facebook as a company) are spending too much time in hiring candidates by asking algorithms based questions when in real modern production code those skills are not relevant. The interview ended by him saying he is done and he will let recruiter know feedback and they will reach out to me. I was left with a bitter shocked feeling. I looked his profile on linkedin and he is at tech middle leadership position in PayPal and has been at paypal for 17 years and has worked in just 1 other tech consulting in his early career. I still don't understand what was the purpose of that interview and intent of HM. Any of you had similar experience at PayPal or elsewhere? #paypal #facebook #apple #google
name and shame?
Sorry didn't understand, could you explain more?
name the interviewer
You should have reminded him that paypal only exists because the US banking system was too stupid or lazy to make a unified standard for payments (like many other countries had done in 80's and 90's). Ask him what future holes they have found in an ever competitive market.
What other countries are you talking about? Random shithole using bitcoin? You could apply this to electric cars to.
Any country that allowed you to send money electronically (cheaply) before paypal. UK and Japan come to mind.
i once had an interview at gilead (lord knows why) HM was an a-hole (demeaning angry indian man) Told him was an a-hole, walked out 12min in Passed his manager on the way out..who remarked "Hey..you done already?" Told him that his manager was the biggest di** i ever encountered in my life..rather be flipping burgers than work for such a #$%@#%# Now i am wondering what happened to that dude.
@whatatool tell us the story!
I work at PayPal and this is one bad apple amongst many good ones
He was salty that he couldn’t Leetcode and get into FAANG. Mad insecurity.
Not sure if this is a PayPal specific problem. I have seen with many startups that the CXO/VP in these companies think that they are solving for world hunger. They always bring thigs like culture, good vibes, hands on etc when the role is of VP level also and try to pursuade you to tell why us? Even when they reach out to you. Is it so difficult to understand that people work for money and you may not be their dream so whay ask this question. Especially true for no name startups who have no process, no sound tech and some random people who have never worked in any meaningful company ever. It has happened many times with me when they cut you and say you didn't answer my question that why you want to join us. So now when I hear this its a red flag for me, I just wrap up the call saying this is not the right fit rather than just go the full loop. In one of the instances I was asked to provide references of my past managers before the interview can even start. The HM wanted to tak to them personally, like how is this even possible? In all companies its a strict no no to provide any refernce and you are directed to point to HR. Unless the previous manager is not your friend they will never respond to a reference call. What is the poin tof refernce anyway, do they not value their own loop? How does the info about what person did in their past position and what manager had to say impacts their ability to perform in next role in a different company? I am totally fine with background checks but what is this with refernces? Too many bad apples especially with startups who think they can ask anything and are Gods when they are HM and the candidate should be happy they are interviewing them. Its a 2 way street, some people just work for money and they don't need to passionate about a startup or justfy why they want to work. As long as there is a job that is enough reason to work there.
PayPal is full of such managers. The good ones have already left PayPal.
I went through one recently. Overall their hiring process felt unprofessional. Interviewers were late to the meeting and seemed unprepared for it... The HR was very slow to respond to my questions and even passed incorrect info during the interview process. It wasn't a good experience overall.
« I got bored with my current work so recently went on an adventure and decided to interview for a role outside FAANGMULaas. « There you go. He sniffed that miles away, he was bored to and messed with you.
Although I like the dark humor part in your reply :) I do want to emphasize on being professional in interview settings, I was not his buddy that he decided to messed at me because he is bored. I seriously spent time in applying to jobs, talking to recruiters, being available for interview with him doing all in addition to day to day work and family schedule. I may have been bored with my current work but applying to jobs and spending time to prepare for interviews is serious time commitment. So, expecting a sincere interview is natural and professional. Would you @HsEak75 personally will be absolutely fine at this, if you were in my situation?