Square Software Engineer Team Matching questions

Amazon
jqnT50

Go to company page Amazon

jqnT50
Apr 21, 2021 13 Comments

Cleared onsite, spoke to 3 managers and didn't get any offers.

After the first 2 team matchings the recruiter came back to me with feedback that the managers weren't sure about my passion/didn't know what motivates me.
But I did mention something like:
- I love working on large scale software that serves a huge customer base / the general public
- I want to focus on backend
- I want to take part in more high level design tasks

The recruiter then advised me to try to connect to past experience when answering these questions. Advice taken, I prepared a more comprehensive story for the final team matching.

In the final team matching I presented my story to the manager. I thought I did fine but maybe I screwed up answering the following 2 questions:
1. Why leave Amzn? I said I want to explore more in this industry, see what technologies other companies are working on.
2. Why join Square? I said the finance sector is pretty new and interesting to me + Square has huge customer base and challenging problems.

Well I have to say I gave pretty honest answers and I am really curious what exactly Square is looking for. Having said that if there are 3 different managers who all believe that I won't succeed in this company, it's better for me not to join it.

I am just shocked that I never realized I suck at answering behavioral questions. Always thought I am a normal, friendly and easy-to-work-with person.

Update: Rejection after 3 team matchings. TBH if Square could just add one more behavior round in the full loop and reject fast if the candidate fails, the whole process could've ended within 2 weeks instead of 2 months. And what made it worse was that the recruiter told me "team matchings aren't interviews"... 🤦🏼‍♀️It's not just about me, why waste the time of those recruiters & HMs? I could feel both parties were losing patience in the end.😭

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TOP 13 Comments
  • I guess luck plays a factor too. Sometimes you just get people that you don’t connect with or they are looking for something else. We’ve all been there.

    I just met with a few teams last week and team matching went well. It was more of a conversation rather than an interview. Just the HM explaining their product, trying to figure out if you were a good match for team as well as for you to decide at the same time.

    I can tell you I didn’t do anything special to show over enthusiasm or anything out of this world. I just talked to them with genuine interest in what they were working, what type of challenges they had, the roadmap, etc.
    Apr 21, 2021 1
  • I guess every company wants you to be excited to join. Your words are very general. TBH idk what they are looking for. That’s the problem when you are not very excited about the work they do. While the company sounds cool, idk if I’ll say anything better than what you just said.
    Apr 21, 2021 0
  • Amazon
    smash@123

    Go to company page Amazon

    smash@123
    Hey, congratulations for the initial success. Can i DM you, curious to know about interviews and level of questions?
    Apr 22, 2021 1
  • Dropbox
    EGgT53

    Go to company page Dropbox

    EGgT53
    Not an eng but reading this idk why you find fintech interesting. It being “new” just suggests you’re going where the wind blows you. Are you passionate about helping small biz owners, simplifying the payments industry, finding new ways of doing things? Your scale and backend answer seems pretty clear to me - sounds like you like working on platform teams that supports lots of feature teams but doesn’t necessarily touch customer facing features
    Apr 21, 2021 1
  • PayPal / Eng
    smfry

    Go to company page PayPal Eng

    smfry
    Wow this seems like going through more of their Q&A interviews, in a loop.
    My guess is they are getting picky because they can pick from a large pool of candidates.
    I recently talked with some managers at Amazon after my interviews, but it was more like they were selling me their team and making me feel that I am welcome.
    Apr 21, 2021 0