I recently interviewed for Salesforce Customer Data Platform team in Bangalore. Sharing my experience here. Step 0: The first call with the HR itself was a little weird as he wanted me to give him a fixed number for expected TC. This is rule 0 in the negotiation book - don't blurt out a fixed number, especially in the initial phase. I told him I can't give him a fixed number as it will depend on the whole offer. Had to haggle a lot with him to not talk about numbers. Eventually just told him my other offer number. Step 1: Probably a good 10 days later, he calls me back saying the resume has been shortlisted and he will be sending a HackerRank test link. Received the link soon and did the test. The test itself (3 hours, Aloha 2 - encode/decode morse code) was bad. It had a very long and confusing problem statement: bad english (not incorrect, just overly verbose) and worst formatting ever seen in a question. Did that, had 6/8 tests passing. Step 2: Received confirmation from the HR a couple days later that I have cleared the test. Scheduled next 3 rounds in 1 day. Told me 1st coding, 2nd system design, 3rd HM. Seemed like the most chill process ever. I did ok in the first round - solved 2 problems, though missed 2 obvious corner cases in one of the questions. I believe I did good in the sysdesign round - interviewer seemed satisfied. Then, when I was expecting the HM round, HR tells me I will be having another coding round. In the third round: the interviewer asked me to write prod ready code to compare two version numbers. I did that and all test cases passed. Then he asked a question related to sparse matrices - where he was looking for the best way to represent a sparse matrix (did not want to see running code). I had trouble understanding his angle on this question, but eventually landed on the list representation (albeit with a few hints - although the hints were only needed to convey his intention). Step 4: The HR calls me the same evening and says the feedback is looking positive till now, and your last round will be with the director next week. So prepare well on leadership questions. So, I did. And I had a pretty good director round - which also involved a sysdesign question. He wanted to know what's my motive to change, leadership kind of things I've done in the team etc. I had a pretty good feeling after this round because I was able to answer all his behavioral questions satisfactorily. Step 5: The BS. I receive a call again after the director round, where the HR asks me how I'm feeling about this round etc. I tell him I'm pretty positive. I confirm again with him that my technical round feedback is positive. He says I should be hearing the result next day when he's had a chance to talk to the director. The next day, he calls me and asks would I accept a SMTS position. I ask him is that the confirmed offer? To which he says he's yet to receive feedback from the directory. I tell him that I expect an LMTS offer. He then again forces me to make a commitment that I will not accept an SMTS offer. I tell him, if they are thinking of offering SMTS, I'd have to see the whole offer (at-least verbal TC offer) and I will not be committing to anything before that. Two days later, he calls me and says that he's received the director's feedback and they have decided that they don't want to offer me either of SMTS/LMTS, but instead an Engineering Manager role. But they don't have an EM opening in their team and so instead the HR can forward my candidacy to a different team. I had told them several times that I'm don't want a people manager role. I requested the HR to pass on my candidacy to the other team for IC roles only to which he said he will "surely talk to another HR". Lo and behold, two days later, I received a generic rejection mail from the HR. I don't get why the whole EM BS when they could have just outright rejected me. YoE: 8y 8m Other Offer TC: 83L + 30% perf on base #salesforce #salesforceinterview
Recruiter are complete crap in India. It's just so frustrating!
It simply meant they did not find you right fit for the technical role. It does not mean that you are not good, but the bar is higher for this certain team. Also, there can be a fitment issue as this team works on some hard core java stack and if you are coming from C++ stack, its difficult to scale easily. I would say what happened in the last conversation was uncalled for. They should have given reasons why EM role is a better fit, or perhaps avoided this proposal all together. Btw, EM role is very very different here from Adobe. The involvement of EM is at deeper technical level, including PR reviews, low level design, performance analysis and occasional coding as well. The people management angle is very little here. I guess you are doing well. Forget and move on.
Which company has offered you 83lpa op?
His current company looks like Adobe
What were the DSA question and System Design question?
Can I Dm you?
Could you kindly share the aloha 2 question ?
Welcome to India. Pathetic recruiters and hiring system if you don't fall in their line. Recruiter has a lot of control on hiring.
I experienced the same in Salesforce USA. Very negative experience overall.