I had my 3rd round interview today, and it was a technical interview with the VP. It felt like he had already made up his mind before we started, and I was fighting an uphill battle. He didn’t even know I had prior interviews, so I mentioned I had spoken to two data engineers.
I’ve been a data analyst for 3 years, and this role is a data analyst/engineer position at a big startup with great growth, pay, and culture, where I believe I can thrive.
The VP asked about my resume and then asked me what categorical data is. I explained it as different tables for different info, but he said that wasn’t right. He said it’s about different categories within the same table. He then reviewed my resume and said it seemed like a mismatch for the role, which I disagreed with, since I had already discussed the job with the other engineers and it’s mostly SQL—something I’ve used a lot.
He then gave me a query task on coderdata, but I couldn’t test my queries. I tried to explain my thought process, but he seemed uninterested. I completed the query just as time ran out, and he abruptly ended the call. The whole thing felt frustrating, and communication was not smooth.
I’m thinking of reaching out to the recruiter to share my experience and ask for another chance, but I don’t have high hopes. After 500+ applications and getting just 1-2 interviews, this felt especially disappointing. It’s tough since I had good conversations with the principal and senior data engineers, but the VP has the final say.
Feeling disheartened.