I applied online. I interviewed at Specno (Cape Town)
Interview
The process of the interview was brief, to the point, and involved little admin. Some of it happened over the phone via WhatsApp. They are very casual, unusual but it made for easy negotiating.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Specno in Mar 2025
Interview
Talked to a recruiter
Only applied because I knew a good person there
Things seem to be going well, but the recruiter sends me a technical assessment for the Frontend Engineer position
IT'S A FULL-SYSTEM ASSESSMENT
You have to create a microservices-based project management app with:
- Project and task management (CRUD, statuses, assignments)
- User roles and authentication (JWT or OAuth2)
- A REST or GraphQL API
- A database (PostgreSQL/MongoDB/MySQL)
- A frontend in React, Vue, or Angular
- Tests (unit and integration)
- Documentation on setup and usage
- Optional DevOps extras (containerization, CI/CD, event-driven notifications)
And when I reached back to the recruiter to ask why the Frontend Engineering assessment is so large, and asked if there is a frontend specific assessment, he shut me down and said I raised red flags
Not impressed
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Do you want to work you chops to the bone for a salary that is well below the necessary for the skills you'd offer to the company?
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Specno (Cape Town) in Jan 2024
Interview
I received an email inviting me to do a screening call.
I had the screening call, they asked mostly behavioural questions. I then received an email inviting me to properly interview.
The interview was with a consultant. I was asked technical questions.
After this I was invited to an in person test with other candidates to assess our networking abilities.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked me about myself and how I would fit into a sales role, given that my experience and qualification was not in sales.