Nice technical interview process, but no Human Resources involved. The process was pretty fast, about two weeks.
I have submitted my application seeking to keep in contact also with frontend software development, instead of only backend software. A videoconference invitation was sent by email. The first interview was conducted by the responsible for Portugal office located in Porto. There was a presentation of the company business and I also introduced my career background and professional expectation. It felt strange because I was not contacted by the human resources responsible first, which is usually in the recruiting process. The responsible sent an assessment to be done, one of algorithm logic which is related to ATM (automated teller machine) that should deliver only bills of 100, 50, and 20. This involves some math to use modulus (mod) to figure the remainder of some calculations and divisions. There are some samples of how to accomplish this in code wars, qualified or similar training sites. The other question was to deal with oriented object programming, making use of encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance. You are expected to add some extra tests to the existing unit tests. Around 1 hour each (30 minutes) to each question. After that, a new videoconference interview was setup to make questions about the assessment, to verify your way of thinking, and explain your decisions. And then there is an interview in English to assess your English level if English is not your native language. The English interview as more difficult, involving to present possible architectural solutions to highly scalable systems, what would you do to keep metrics of the systems if the error tracking system was down, how to avoid requests hit the database all the time, how to increase the performance of an Url shortener service. Then the engineering responsible asked about availability to start, that a possible interview with VP at Buildium could happen.
The remote interview with someone with Buildium never happened and I receive a proposal with a contract draft. The interview process was aiming to offer a job position at Buildium, but in this contract draft there was no Buildium company, and instead, the company name was Upperhand Software, a consulting firm from Portugal. It felt a little misleading. I have researched and confirmed that Buildium in Portugal changed its name to Upperhand Software, and the owner is from Portugal, and not from the United States, where Buildium headquarters is located.
The salary for the senior position was a little below my expectation and due to the uncertainty of the current situation of this company in Portugal I had to decline the job offer.
Overall, the interview experience was good, although the information about the status of the company in Portugal is not so clear, perhaps due to COVID. The company at this moment has no physical location in Portugal as of today.
