Terrible to hear. 
Had a couple of bad experiences of my own. 

Once, a company made me travel for their final round at the other end of the city- 1.5 hours one way.  

Spoke to me for under 10 mins - just what my college and experience was like and let me go. 

Never gave me a rejection letter.

Product Manager

I’m looking for an internship. I already worked with a startup for 3 months which went fine.  I’m in the “market” again  but I had some weird experiences. Some of the interviews were too tough. One...

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I’m looking for an internship. I already worked with a startup for 3 months which went fine. 
I’m in the “market” again  but I had some weird experiences.
Some of the interviews were too tough.
One of them literally said “I’ll be sending u the offer letter” and then ghosted me.
And one of them didn’t reply at all after the interview.
🥹

Internship interview experience

Internship interview experience- Grapevine

I was laid off in February. Finally after 2.5 months of boring interviews and life, landed a job. Today was Day 1. 
I was outside India for a while doing crazy stuffs. I returned in June and then started applying. Here is the summary. 
1. Lots of applicants in the job market. Every job would attract 1000s of applicants 
2. Most jobs require high experience - 5+ 
3. Applying and finding companies who are hiring is tough. 
4. Emailed everyone in network, took referrals from all friends, took referrals from LinkedIn (very low response), Applied on instahyre, Wrote to startup founders, applied Wellfound, Workday(worst of all), Naukri 
5. Startups are the worst - gave petty assignments and ghosted after getting solution. Had to follow up multiple times but to no avail. They ate my whole 1 month
6. Some interviews were different - in one I had to code in python very fast. That's it. Wasn't selected as I was looking up for syntax on internet. 
7. Overall it was a very boring and tiring process. I somehow maintained my sanity. 

YoE- 2
TC- 29L ( Base +PF)

Laid off in Feb. Landed a job now.

Tough time never last but tough people do  
 Great 🔥

Software Engineer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Recently had a chance to interview at a pretty mature startup(moengage), a recruiter called me up, we set up a time and date for a machine coding round. I was pretty excited to be honest and looking forward to the interview.
Fast forward to the day of reckoning , I join the interview with my intellij set up, my pen and paper to draw the ERD ready and my mind full of design patterns, only to be confronted with two DS & Algo questions(i legit gave up the moment i heard ds), the questions were interesting and the interviewer chill but it blindsided me by a whole lot and I couldn’t solve anything.
It’s pretty weird that startups with so many resources at their disposal could be so out of sync internally.

Weirdest(worst?) interview experience

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I am a computer engineering student from a tier 3 college in Pune. Now that I am in the last couple of months of my 6th semester multiple companies have come to our campus but I haven't gotten an internship. How do i search for internships off campus?
Are there any tips from some experienced people like what do companies look at when giving out internships. Since last month I started applying off campus using linkedin and other websites but I am not getting any callbacks for interviews or even online tests.
Previously I haven't done any internships but have done projects which I have out on my resume.

Please forgive me if the format of this post is wrong, vague or broad. I am writing a grapevine post for the first time.

How to search for software internships

I am currently doing an SDE Internship in one of the startups in gurugram. Initially I was given a 6 month intern + full time offer, all went well, but in the last month this company is revoking full time offers of some interns  and extending the intern offer to 3-4 months. What should I do in this case ? I am literally scared right now?

Unfair practices in startup revoking FT offer

Software Developer

In the last 3 months, I have appeared for PM interviews for three major startups. After collectively going through 12 interviews (3 of them in person) and 2 assignments - I have nothing to show for. The position just evaporates AFTER the whole process has been done. In one of the cases, HR also collected all the necessary documents like salary slips, appointment letter from current org and the likes and asked me put down my papers over a verbal commitment. Good thing I didn't do that. 

It's so ridiculous that these so called unicorns can't even do one little hiring correctly. And how it's even possible to initiate hiring if they don't even have the clarity on whether they want to hire or not? Idk if it's the consequence of a shitty job market or it's my luck. Just feeling extremely frustrated because there's nothing I can do about it. I clear all the interviews and do the assignments perfectly - what else I can do? 

HRs don't even have the guts to apprise me proactively. They'll just stall releasing of the offer letter for weeks and stop taking your calls. One fine day when they finally decide to spare some of their holy time - it's usually a one line response: Position went on a hold, will let you know. Bye. 

Indian job market is really the worst. Absolutely zero ethics and no value for anyone's time.

Just frustrated by positions going on hold after the final round

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Have worked in edtech, crypto and fintech, been through layoff (as an intern 😀), got multiple offers within 10 days of being laid off, got the PPO denied from one while got the PPO from the other.  Have seen founders with half a billion of funding boast about their culture and seen them layoff 120 folks the very next month.

Yes, its nothing compared to what the very well experienced folks on this platform have seen and experienced and gone through, but it's honest work :)

So ask me anything 😀

Intern with 18 months of experience. AMA 🤡

When should one communicate to HR about receiving only half their salary due to market conditions in their current company during salary negotiations?

So, I joined a startup as a content writing intern.  the timings were shitty (10hrs Mon-Sat)  but it was good. I had already told them my situation that I do have classes for 2hrs I need to attend but otherwise I'm free (distance learning hai). I also need to go twice a month to centres for assignment submission  or queries.

But, the worst part is that no one was giving me feedback and I was still getting to know how things work on my own. However, after 20 days, they terminated my contract saying I wasn't up to mark and without any warnings or feedback. I was so flabbergasted that I couldn't voice my opinion. 

Now, I have gotten.internship opportunities from 2 startups. I don't know if this is how startup works and I don't want to get so stressed about it. Is this how startup environments are?

P.S. : That was my first experience working with a Startup

Are Startups like this?

I recently got an offer from a seed stage startup for a SDE2 role. They shared the offer in a 2 liner mail. Weirdly enough they have a probation period of 3 months which could also be extended to 6 months during which there'll be no paid leaves, nothing, and you cannot be late to the office any day.
I asked them to share the detailed offer letter with all these verbal probation clauses penned down and they've not replied for a week.
After getting the offer, they asked me to submit my adhar card, pan card, 10th, 12th marksheet, graduation certificate, passport, birth certificate, payslips, previous offer letter, resignation mail, proof of bonuses and all sorts of documents. 

It's funny how they think trust only works one way. I've withdrawn the application as there were too many red flags during the entire process. I really wish the Indian corporate system had an open culture where trust is bidirectional and not act like we're at the mercy of their job.

Funny interview at a startup

Some startup from gurgaon sent me this as front end assignment

Frontend Engineer

Hey everyone, My first post in Grapevine

I will be finishing my 2nd yr(T2 ECE), and want to do an internship. 
I know only very basic concepts of python, Java, oops dsa and in ML/data science (all youtube)

Can you tell what is actually done throughout an internship,
ie do they give you small tasks like writing a function (similar to the problem stmts from codechef/hacker rank) 
or you get to shadow them while they're working 
or they assume u already know the stuff and make you part of team that develops a fully fledged backend application 
or even worse they ask you to develop some basic website or ask u to create a model with demo datasets?
 
Now if I were to apply for internships at some good companies or startups, pls suggest what and how should I prepare for it?
What and all should I expect them to ask me?

Also please do drop in your first internship experiences.

PS: Im not interested in virtual internships, and I want to get into the field of ML.
Tl;dr: Explain how internships work

Can anyone explain the economics of Internships?

I'm currently working as DSE at Infosys from june 2022 ,i am willing to make a switch, but I'm getting almost no interview calls, only calls that i get are mostly from small startups. Can anyone suggest me on how to secure interviews

Getting no interview calls

I work at a product startup and it's been 1yr and 3 months now. It is my first job. We are an engineering group of 5 including the CTO. After 5 months I joined, we stopped our B2B product and started working on a B2C product which is very promising. But since last 6-7 months we are not getting our salaries and I don't know what to do. It's been hard finding a new job because most of them demand more than 2,3 years of experience.
I would like to work on startups again for the intense learning atmosphere they provide. Can someone help

Trying to switch job. Current startup hasn't paid salaries for 6-7 months

Welcome to Ask Grapeviners's Private Community

Hey guys, I have been working in a startup company for 3 weeks. I am a fresher and I am forced to work on weekends and even during holidays like 2nd of Oct. My Team lead always tells me to come to the office during weekends and he says it's an order. I am working in sales and the reason they gave is that we have to work as festivals are coming.

How should I tell my team lead and manager that I  am exhausted and can't work like that. I am totally new to the Job life and don't have any clue how to move forward. Please help!

Need help! Been working 7 days a week since 3 weeks.

Hi Grapeviners, I have ten years of work ex in performance marketing and CRM. I started job search actively from Feb 15 this year and landed first interview today. 

How bad is the market out there. I usually get hired with in 30 job applications, also I apply to the role only if 70% and above role match with my previous experience also use referrals when available.

Also please roast my resume https://stonedmind.tiiny.site/ have redacted wherever necessary to stay anonymous as possible. For the first time in my career I have a doubt that my resume might not be upto the mark

Please let me know your views in the comments. Any help is appreciated.

To land 1 interview it took 60 job applications

Being a tier 3 college grad, It took me 700 applications to get 25 shortlists, and only 7 interview calls. Converted all of them. 
  
 Sometimes you’re just not allowed to participate in the race 🙂

Growth Manager

I cleared all 6 rounds of a PM interview with an Edtech startup.  The HR asked for current offer letter, 2 references (current and previous manager), and a couple of other docs. 

Then ghosted me for 2 weeks. When I followed up, the HR said they are in-process of interviewing other candidates

Is it normal to do this now a days? 

I understand the company wants to interview more people. But then why ask for any details from me till you are sure that you are going to give an offer

Is it normal?

Welcome to IT Company Discussion's Private Community

Hi Guys ,
I started my job search in June 
Not getting much calls 
In interview the people who are taking interviews are having whole different level of attitude.
0 offer letter till date .
Feeling stuck and demotivated.

Job Market at worst?

Welcome to Confessions's Private Community

Since the start of this month, I have been applying for different opportunities but haven't received a response from any of them. I am currently a backend developer with 3.5 years of experience at a Fortune 30 company and have been promoted for two consecutive years. I also don't want to use referrals right now because I'm completely unprepared. If you are in job hunt please share your experience.

Internship interview experience

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