I applied online. I interviewed at Canonical (Ottawa, ON)
Interview
🚩🚩🚩 Massive Red Flag 🚩🚩🚩 If the first stage of an interview process, before a human touchpoint of any kind is demanding a written assignment requesting coverage of 20+ in-depth questions, recruiters kindly please give your head a shake. 🤦♀️ If you are expecting candidates to write a dissertation solely for your benefit without even a brief screening to assess fit, baseline expectations, salary, location, etc. you are out to lunch and just plain bad at your job. Interviewing is a two-way process and nothing screams RED FLAG like a one-way process that solely favors the interviewer. Not to mention, the process being highly inefficient, discriminatory and bad for recruiting speed & quality. This was one of the WORST interview experiences I think I've ever been approached for. Do better.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Career development When did you become interested in HR? What is your proudest success as an HR professional? Describe your experience in the technology industry Would you describe yourself as efficient? Give an example where you helped improve the efficiency of something you or your team were responsible for. Insights How would you assess productivity in a remote context, for different disciplines? How would you assess happiness in a global organization? What is your experience when it comes to designing and implementing processes across an organization? Please give an example of an impactful process that you have designed and briefly describe the outcome. What would you like to try at Canonical to raise the bar globally in HR? Education How did you rank in your high school, in your final year in maths and hard sciences? Which was your strongest? How did you rank in your high school, in your final year in languages and the arts? Which was your strongest? Please state your high school graduation results or university entrance results, along with the system used, and how to understand those. For example, in the US, you might give your SAT or ACT scores. In Germany, you might give your scores 1-5. What sort of high school student were you? Outside of class, what were your interests and hobbies? What would your high school peers remember you for, if we asked them? Which university and degree did you choose? What other universities did you consider, and why did you select that one? At university, did you do particularly well at any area of your degree? Overall, what was your degree result and how did that reflect on your ability? In high school and university, what did you achieve that was exceptional? What leadership roles did you take on during your education? Context Please tell us what you find most interesting about this role. What support do you think you need from Canonical to be successful?
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Canonical (Toronto, ON) in Oct 2023
Interview
The interview process was extremely long. I did 7 1-hour interviews, on top of a written assignment, and two assessments.
I made it to the final stage of the process and was told that the final decision could come down to my (self-reported) high-school grades (!!!) It felt wild to make it that far and spend that much time interviewing, to be discounted for the role based on something I'd provided at the first step in the process.
Overall, the interviewers were nice, and the recruiter I worked with was helpful, but it's not an interview process I would put myself through ever again.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The written interview had questions related to the role (professional accomplishments, how would you level up our company, etc.) but for the most part the questions were about high-school and university, including my grades and achievements.
I applied online. I interviewed at Canonical (New York, NY)
Interview
Horrible experience. Long essay, long test, did not talk to a single person at the company. Test indicated I outperformed others in the category. Then was a sent a rejection letter.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
None - did not get that far. Spent way too much on the front end to not at least talk to someone to promote my work experience. They asked about High School accomplishments...but I have been in the workforce for 30 years....how is that even relevant. Don't waste your time.